Why We Support Medicare for All and SB 810, The California Universal Healthcare Act

Single payer activists to celebrate Medicare's 46th Birthday and push for "Medicare for all" in SF today, Saturday July 30, one of over 40 similar events around the country

Today, on Saturday, July 30, in San Francisco, Bay Area single payer supporters will celebrate Medicare's 46th birthday and call for it's expansion to everyone in the US, for universal health care and major cost savings. It's one of many such events around the country (http://www.healthcare-now.org/takeaction/events-calendar/). Before Medicare was established by law in 1965, only 51 percent of Americans 65 and older had health care coverage and 30 percent of them lived below the poverty line. Today, virtually all Americans 65 and older have health care coverage and only 7.5 percent of seniors live below the poverty line.
Medicare is the best example of single payer health care in our country, in that it relies on just one, government office. It stands in stark contrast to private insurance-based healthcare, which drains away about one third of each healthcare dollar to pay for paperwork and profits. This celebration is an opportunity for a panel representing several Bay Area community organizations to say what Medicare means to the people they serve. They will not only say why it should be protected from current attempts in Congress to cut or change it, but will also make the case that it should be expanded to give everyone in this country access to healthcare via a national single payer system. This "Medicare for all" would provide everyone living in the US full access to the health care providers of their choice, completely eliminate the health insurance industry, and as a result save government budgets and individuals hundreds of billions of dollars.

WHAT: Panel discussion with q&a

WHEN: Today, Saturday, July 30, 2011, 3 to 5 pm

WHERE: 255 Ninth St, ILWU Local 6 Union Hall, San Francisco, California

SPEAKERS PANEL:
Carl Finamore: former President Air Transport Employees, Local 1781, IAMAW & current SF Labor Council delegate
Barry Hermanson: Co-chair, California Green Party Coordinating Committee
Flora Luo and Jimmy Nguyen: Core Member and Youth Organizers with Chinese Progressive Association
Michael Lyon: Gray Panthers
Gordon Mar: Jobs with Justice
Rachel Schapira: Potrero Hill Democratic Club
Kathy Lipscomb: Senior Action Network