Our Next Meeting in 2010
The next ChiSPAN meeting is on February 9, 2010, at Access Living. This new year ushers in a new set of challenges for the single-payer movement. The fight is not over, the stakes are just as high and we're going to keep on pushing!
Our Gratitude List
Last year, ChiSPAN stuck together, remaining staunch and determined even as the debate about the “possible” solutions to the health care crisis became increasingly limited and mediocre. The struggle is still happening and our purpose is as clear as ever. So what better way to sum up our effort than with a Gratitude List?
Here’s a list of some of the things we are grateful to have done, or grateful to have been part of, for 2009:
January
ChiSPAN leads a panel discussion about Single-Payer at the UIC College of Medicine, including members Vanessa Beck and Helen Redmond speaking alongside Dr Alan Jackson of PNHP.
April
ChiSPAN fulfills its mission outside a pro-“public option” rally sponsored by HCAN and Citizen Action Illinois. Handing out flyers and talking to people walking in, we counter the disinformation and disillusionment sown inside the pep rally inside. We had our work cut out for us, namely in making sure people knew that: 1) A public option is not the same as single-payer; 2) A public option isn’t a stepping stone to single-payer, but a vote of confidence in the generosity of the insurance companies to be regulated; 3) the public option isn’t the magic ticket out of the worst practices of the insurance pirates; 4) the entities that make the most out of the current system (big pharma, hospitals, insurance) would fight a public option just as hard as a single-payer system, so join us to fight for what you actually believe in instead of a cowardly distortion crafted by politicians.
June
Our hottest month yet as we rally at Cigna and two weeks later coalesce again around President Obama’s speech to the AMA. At one spine-tingling moment, a few of us find a locale where AMA doctors were just leaving the speech and begin chanting “End corporate welfare! Single-payer health care!”
July
We protest at WGN and NBC to denounce the media blackout of single-payer in coverage of the health care debates.
August
We speak in and around Chicago to educate about the merits of fighting for single-payer (a coherent idea with a sensible readable bill, HR 676, behind it) vs this ever-slipping public option. We speak at churches, museums, streetcorners, lecture rooms and union halls. In one of the strangest moments of the year, we show up with single-payer signs and chants to a Tea Party Recess rally hosted by a right-wing talk radio station. Despite being dubbed by a most attendees as “pro-socialist,” we are treated respectfully. We even are invited by the hosts to make our case into the public microphone. (Which is a lot more than we get at the deafening, over-choreographed HCAN events.)
September
On a busy Sunday, we picket Whole Foods when the company’s CEO John Mackey declares in an editorial that “health care is not a human right,” followed by a set of reasons why people’s personal responsibility for their own health should lead them to buy from, you guessed it, Whole Foods.
October
Sparked by the Aetna action in New York, we sit in at Cigna and make an impressive splash in the media, too. Seven of our members are dragged out of the building and loaded up into the police wagons. The case against them is later dismissed. Within a few weeks, more than 100 people will be detained or arrested while fighting for improved and expanded Medicare for all.
December
We picket Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s house in Evanston on the night of a progressive PAC fundraiser. She assures us that the abortion ban in House bill, which she spoke strongly against but then allowed to pass with her vote for the overall bill, would be out of the final bill. We are still waiting.
Our Position on the House Bill: Kill It
At Health-Care NOW's annual meeting, the grass roots single-payer movement spoke loud and clear about the House Bill. While we wish to "reach out to potential allies who realize that the public option movement has reached a dead end," we also are firm that this bill, despite a few crumbs of reform embedded within it, is top-to-bottom rotten. It leaves a dismal, piratical for-profit insurers in place and therefore, it needs to die. Rip it up and start again.
For evidence, look no further than Rose Ann DeMoro, who writes: "While some people will have improved access, the final accounting will be an even firmer private insurance grip on our healthcare system, with the U.S. remaining the only industrialized nation which barters our health for private profit."
There's also this trenchant analysis by Helen Redmond and Alan Maass:
Beyond all the details, there's something twisted and Orwellian at the core of the House's "landmark" health care legislation. The same corporations responsible for a health care crisis that has left 50 million people uninsured and at least 25 million underinsured, that is the leading cause of personal bankruptcy, and that kills 45,000 people every year are being left in charge of the system. The insurance companies are presented as the only solution to a crisis they caused.
And in Harpers, Luke Mitchell exposes the bankrupt sucking-up to corporate power that has characterized both congressional and legislative effort:
The framework for reform, for instance, was authored not by Max Baucus, the Democratic senator who chairs the Finance Committee, but by his senior aide, Liz Fowler, who had become the vice president for public policy and external affairs at WellPoint, one of the nation's largest health-insurance corporations.
Case Dismissed!
The administrative hearings room was electric as a small bit of justice was served on November 20.
Chicago's own Cigna 7, who received civil trespass tickets for sitting in on October 8, had their day of deliberation. In the end, the building manager, who filed the complaint on Cigna's behalf, was a no-show. And so, one by one, each member was called up along with their ticket number and all charges were dismissed.
Legal counsel Dolores Pino deserves a mad ovation as she had prepped defense tactics for weeks pro bono and was primed to go the mat for these activists.
We at ChiSPAN are very proud of this victory, but we also know that this was but a spark. As of November 20, nearly 200 people across the nation have been arrested, and many more risked arrest, fighting for single-payer. To paraphrase Marilena, one of the Cigna 7, it's actions like this that show people the strength of the movement to make health care a human right.
THE FIGHT FOR SINGLE-PAYER IS ON!
The Chicago Single-Payer Action Network (CSPAN) is a grassroots organization of activists fighting to make health care a human right. We are a diverse group of people from different political persuasions, but we share the belief that our current health care system is broken and that fundamental—not incremental—change is needed.
Gender, racial, and class disparities are endemic in the health care system.
We believe the only way to end this suffering and unnecessary death is by abolishing the private insurance industry. These corporations put profits before patients and are responsible for the health care crisis.
CSPAN proudly supports John Conyers's bill, The United States National Health Care Act (H.R. 676). This bill eliminates the insurance companies and replaces them with a single-payer system where the government pays all medical bills: no co-pays, no deductibles, and no denial of care.
H.R. 676 makes health care a human right that can never be taken away.
CSPAN believes that protest and educating people are the way to win single-payer. We have organized pickets and demonstrations in front of insurance company buildings and the Democratic National Committee offices.
Successful educational events include a panel discussion with the American Medical Students Association (AMSA) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a meeting on gender and racial disparities with Physicians For a National Health Program (PNHP) at Harold Washington College.
Join us today in the struggle to win health care as a human right.
EVERYBODY IN, NOBODY OUT!
WHEN AND WHERE WE MEET
CSPAN meets the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month at 6:30 PM. The next meetings in 2009 will be on February 9 and February 23. at Access Living, 115 West Chicago Ave, Third Floor.
Join the list below and get info about meetings, events and news! Just fill in the fields below and click 'Submit'.
Or email us at chisinglepayer@gmail.com
54 Arrested in Nine Cities, October 15
Soldiering on with the actions sparked in New York (September 29) and Chicago (October 8), dozens of citizens in nine cities—Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Palm Beach, Reno, Cleveland, Phoenix, Portland OR, and Washington, DC—risked arrest at insurance companies on October 15. In the end, 54 people in spoke loudly across the country through their actions for single payer. (Not that you would know it based on the inane "Balloon Boy" story dominating that day.)
While this story about the action excellent, it's the video by AP that is most riveting.
THE CIGNA 7 SPEAK
Some of the members who were arrested on October 8 laid down their thoughts about the experience and some of the reasons they put themselves on the line that day. Here is what they had to say.
TOM
"I was nervous as a cat but determined to make a point. The police clearly didn't fear us and were fairly sympathetic—but they did manage to drop me…[Read more]"
TIMI
"So yes, it was scary. We fully expected not only to be arrested, but held overnight in jail. But if our action helps build momentum for the next sit-in, the next demonstration, and then helps more Congress find its backbone, it was worth it. I hope President Obama was watching too…[Read more]"
MARILENA
"For me, getting arrested with the 'Cigna 7' at a non-violent sit-in in downtown Chicago was about injecting the single-payer movement with a good dose of momentum like the Baucus 13 had back in May…[Read more]"
HELEN
"Getting arrested is one of the most radical ways to address the social problem of people in need of medical care and dying from lack of access to it. It makes me sick. …[Read more]"
NATIONAL CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE COMES TO CHI-TOWN!
On October 8, C-SPAN kept the chain of the national sit-in action going! Seven citizens, including many C-SPAN members, were arrested and received civil trespass violations while many others held a legal rally just outside the offices of Cigna Insurance. In order of appearance (i.e., being dragged out of the building by the cops), the arrestees were Jim, Lorin, Tom, Marilena, Timi, Peggy and Helen.
Known forevermore as the Cigna 7.
So raise a glass to the CIGNA 7! They take their places alongside the Baucus 13 and the Aetna 17! All were arrested while fighting for MEDICARE FOR ALL.
Here they are, just after the arrest:
Here is video of the action from nationally syndicated local network WGN as well the always-thorough Telemundo. As usual, Illinois Media Progressives flashed its commitment to single-payer by delivering a timely and searing video clip later that day.
You can see more pictures of the Sit-In on these friends' FLICKR pages here and here.
While we were happy the story went national on the AP news wire, the deepest coverage (video or print) was from stalwart independent outlets like Black Agenda Report, Peoples World, Democracy Now! (at about 7 minutes into the clip) and blogs such as The Chicagoist.
By such actions we are hoping to light a spark and show that we won't mistake the current health "reform" debacle on Capitol Hill as the real thing. As we chanted today: "Hey, Congress, don't drop the ball! What do we want? MEDICARE FOR ALL!"
As you may or may not have heard, 17 people were arrested in New York on Tuesday, September 29. Healthcare NOW locking arms with Prosperity Agenda, the Center for Working Poor and other activists, led a sit-in at Aetna to fight for Improved Medicare for All.
These actions will continue in other cities on Thursday, October 15. The fight doesn't end in New York and Chicago! You can sign up at the Mobilize for Health Care for All site. You can check out the latest news, photos and videos on these actions at their blog.
More Dire Numbers: 45,000 Deaths per Year, 1 in 5 Claims Denied
The latest stunning figures published by the American Journal of Public Health indicate that 45,000 die every year due to lack of health insurance.
And, as if that isn't horrifying enough, there is also a new report that substantiates how many claims Big Insurance has to deny to stay in deadly business: in the case of California, 1 in 5. Watch our colleague, Donna Smith, drive the point home on CBS.
If that doesn't get you going, then there is always the sharp writing in the Black Agenda Report:
Slavery and child labor [could not be] made humane and reasonable, not with kind and solicitous masters or school and limited hours for the kids. Both these practices were eventually cast aside. Allowing soulless, greedy private insurance corporations to collect a toll for standing between patients and doctors may be next.
Read the rest here, and fight with us on Thursday, October 8!!! (See above.)
Why We Are With Weiner
In the meantime, Anthony Weiner is doing all he can to get his amendment to the House bill passed, an amendment bringing Medicare for All to the floor of the House for a full debate. This is remarkable historical stuff and we are pleased as punch to have been part of the grassroots push for health care justice as it hits the Capitol. And here is yet another reason we are so emphatically behind Congressman Weiner.
Whole Foods Manager: "We've Got PROTESTORS Out There!"
CSPAN's scrappy picket of Whole Foods ran up against many of the usual suspects: complaisant rich folks (or wannabes) who love what health care they have and call us "socialists," security guards who are just doing their jobs and red-faced managers who tell us in centimeters exactly where the public and private sidewalk is.
We were responding to the August 12 Wall Street Journal editorial by Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, where he argued hard against governmental reform to address the health care crisis in this country. According to him, health care is a not an intrinsic right.
We were merely there to publicly disagree. We were very much inspired by the remarkable effort made by single-payer activists at a New York Whole Foods.
Despite much resistance, we got the word out and made a few friends. Someone on staff ran out to report to us how shaken up the store manager was. Anonymous employee said, quoting him, "Never mind the broken escalator! We've got protestors out there!" One woman thought we were wasting our time and insisted we look up Australia's system and promote a model like that. (For the record, Australians' primary care is universally covered in a Medicare-like system, so where is the argument, ma'am?) One woman even put her bags down and started flyering with us.
All in all, it was a fine and civilized way to spend a Sunday. The whole debate is also creating strange but somewhat predictable bedfellows, as you can read here.
Bringing the "Improved Medicare for All" idea to Kenosha
While it wasn't exactly the Rumble in the Jungle, Kenosha's August 27 Town Hall at the UAW Union Hall was pugnacious and boisterous and hopefully demystified many of the distortions coming out of both the right-wing and Obama camps. C-SPANer Edward Crouse was on hand, invited by Democratic Congressional Candidate Paulette Garin to help explain single-payer and why we should not fear it. Check it out here.
And for more on "Fighting" Paulette Garin, take a gander at her blog and radio show.
Conservative Radio and Weiner Make for a Wild CSPAN Weekend
CSPAN was all set to make our presence known at Rep. Danny Davis's town hall at Malcolm X college. After arriving and glancing at the all-day schedule, we realized that only a very small, strictly regulated, cordoned-off part of the day would be dedicated to health care.
So instead, many of us decamped for a rally in Federal Plaza asking why Sen. Dick Durbin wasn't having his own town hall during the congressional recess. Though sponsored by a nutty conservative radio station, 560 WIND, we were there to make our presence felt as dissenters against both the Tea Bag crowd (who never met a corporate solution they didn't like nor a government idea they didn't mistrust) and Obamacare's tepid solution.
While we had the right-leaning crowd scratching their heads, the Radio host did invite us to their open microphone, an offer that we took them up on gladly, braving the jeers and taunts and yells in the name of vigorous debate. Afterward, they thanked us for having the "stones" to brave a hostile crowd and state our position. And we must thank them, too. HCAN rallies are notable for their reliance on crowd noise and deafening music between speeches, the better to fake a united front for Obama policies. We offer our respect to Station 560 WIND for their keeping the debate open and making space for civil public disagreement with them. (Even if it meant being mistakenly dubbed a "pro-socialist group.")
Oh, by the way, before we went to rally, coffee and doughnuts helped us to marshall our strength. As did getting together to watch Rep. Anthony Weiner make an utterly logical, bracing case for single-payer and leave his middlebrow conservative MSNBC host Joe Scarborough self-admittedly "speechless." This is required viewing for anyone who needs to be reminded of the stakes of the health care battle. Here are Part One and Part Two.
Moyers Still an Oasis of Principled Journalism
We swear we are not paid agents of PBS. But we can't help it if Bill Moyers Journal is arguably the best show sorting through the thicket of distortions, weak claims and false assumptions about the health care debate. The show is a true town hall, where intelligent people from across the political rainbow speak with conscience and reason. Fortunately, the show Web page has gathered up all of the recent segments and reports into one Special Feature page.
Even though we disagree with his conclusions, in one interview, conservative speechwriter David Frum notes how "a lot of Democrats" regard the public option as "secretly unacceptable": "There are a lot of things that Democrats from more conservative states pretend to be in favor of to keep in good order with the national party while counting on Republicans to make it impossible to happen. When they have Democratic majorities, they then quietly defect because they don't believe in it, either."
One thing we absolutely can agree on is the "need to begin to sever the link between employment and insurance. It's a holdover irrationality that you get your insurance through the place where you work, that discourages people from leaving."
Our Disruptions vs Their Disruptions
You don't have to squint to see single-payer people at rallies, debates and town halls. Unless of course, you're watching the latest news stories on town halls, dominated by right-wing, know-nothing shriekers. For years, we have tried to bring sense and humanity into the health care reform forum. We too have disrupted business-as-usual congressional hearings. We have been rewarded with slim-to-none coverage.
One woman brought a poster of Rosa Parks to Senator Claire McCaskill's town hall meeting, presumably to illustrate our own "back of the bus" health care system. When she began to unroll it to show a journalist, one cretin saw fit to tear it up.
Appalling stuff. But guess who was thrown out for causing a disruption?
Every Day a New Compromise from the White House
Regardless of where they might land on the political spectrum, many people (rightly) have a sense that Obama's plan is internally incoherent, designed to fail, and bound to preserve the profiteers and pirates who kill millions of people a year. But don't just take our word for it. Here's John Conyers' candid assessment of Obama's mild proposals: "Crap." A larger story emerges, too: Will "crap" concessions and betrayals of his own stated principles make Obama a one-term president?
Remembering Marilyn Clement and Nicholas Skala
Within days of each other, the single-payer movement lost two of its most eloquent and tenacious fighters: Marilyn Clement, longtime civil rights champion and founder of our sister group, Health Care NOW!, and Nicholas Skala, who as a research associate at PNHP helped author Illinois' single-payer bill, HB 311. Here is a great interview with him.
We raise our glasses to them and in their names redouble our efforts in the struggle to bring health care to all!
Our July 15 Rally Against Media Blackout of Single-Payer
On a sweltering workday at high noon, CSPAN and Chicago Media Action (CMA) stood in front of NBC, Tribune and WGN buildings with signs, fliers and petitions.
"192,000 people a month are losing their jobs! And with that, they're losing their health care!" rang the bullhorn as many passersby grabbed our handouts supporting guaranteed health care. After much chanting in front of the WGN radio booth, we stood firm and laid out the facts as starkly as possible. "Rep. Henry Waxman, who introduced one part of the House bill on health care reform, has acknowledged that this bill will not cover everyone. He has said, 'That's not what it was designed to do.'"It's time we all stood up and said to Obama, Waxman, Pelosi and Baucus that covering a few more people with a bit more insurance won't do it.
Single-payer now! Expanded and Improved Medicare can't wait!
Local PBS Station Caves to Insurance Sponsors?
We are huge fans of Bill Moyers' Journal on PBS and are often link to it. He's about the best telejournalist there is: insightful, conscientious, muckraking and giving no break to either political party.
That's why CSPAN members, not to mention garden-variety concerned citizens who follow the health care reform debate, were looking forward to the July 10 show on Big Insurance's latest attempts to kill even a public option. Alongside a take-no-prisoners segment about the collusion of corporate money, politicians and journalists, The Journal was also to feature an interview with Wendell Potter, a whistleblower who until last year was Director of Corporate Communications for Cigna, one of the largest and most notorious insurers in the country.
That however was not what viewers tuning into local PBS affiliate WTTW saw, at least not on the night the Potter show was to air. What we got was a previously-aired segment on a poet.
That's right: a rerun.
Many of us called WTTW over the weekend, expressing our disgust that somehow this hottest of topics wasn't broadcast during prime time and got the same response: WTTW experienced a "power outage" that night. They did finally broadcast the show on Sunday morning. We then asked when the show would be rebroadcast during prime time. "There are no plans to do so," they replied. "You know, you can see Bill Moyers' Journal online? " We said we didn't want to see it only online.
Then, some of us took a peek at the list of WTTW's major corporate sponsors. Fittingly, we asked if this didn't somehow have something to do with Blue Cross contributions to the station.
We don't know if that did it, but in the end, WTTW did reschedule the show for August 7 prime time. And for that, we thank them.
And for a slightly different but equally compelling interview with Wendell Potter, the hour of him with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now is invaluable.
Recent News and Announcements
CSPAN marches at Obama's speech to the AMA
We couldn't be prouder of our presence at Obama's speech to the AMA on Monday, June 15, 2009. Assembling alongside valiant members of Illinois Single Payer Coalition and ADAPT, we were there to demonstrate and hold Obama to his own words supporting single-payer health care. Most members stayed outside to keep delivering the message to the public outside the Hyatt. A few of us even managed to get into the press room and begin chanting as the crowd was leaving the speech.
The media silence on single payer is fading and our voices are being heard. A CSPAN member was interviewed by the Chi-Town Daily News. Read his remarks here. (Scroll down to the sixth paragraph from the end.)
Terrific Turnout for our June 2 Rally at Cigna Insurance!
Great work at the rally, everyone! CSPAN is proud to have participated in the National Day of Action for Single-payer, in alliance with Healthcare-Now, as well as the California Nurses Association (CNA) and Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP).
After drawing much attention with our banners and chants ("End corporate welfare! Single-payer health care!"), we heard from a number of speakers, who all attested to the devastated, "back of the bus" state of our health system.
We grow more determined, passionate and focused, and we are breaking through the media blackout. Check out how the senator who said that single-payer was "off the table" has finally met with advocates. (Though, in the end, the ultimate value of the meeting is debatable.)
Read here about how Cigna denied coverage to a teenager in need of a liver transplant. This is exactly sort of vile practice we are working to end.
Check it out in this video from IMProgress:
The Single-Payer Protest Toolkit comes home!
Are you living in the vicinity of any of the companies or politicians who have been lousing up the healthcare delivery system in this country? Do you need to organize in your community to fight for the best in healthcare reform? Need to nudge a senator or representative who is supporting a ludicrous hybrid plan that won't fundamentally redress the ills in the current system?
Well, then look no further than CSPAN's Protest Toolkit !
The kit has long been available on the Healthcare-Now Web site's invaluable Resources and Videos section. We thought it was about time to bring it back to Chicago, hard-style! Download it with our compliments!
Moyers: The Best Single-Payer Profile Yet
Bill Moyers' Journal nails it on the head, with the most comprehensive look at single-payer yet. You can either watch the Youtube clips below or see the full program.
Some Noteworthy Articles
Amy Goodman reports on single-payer activists making their voices heard on Capitol Hill. And getting arrested in the process. All hail the Baucus 13!
Plus, a woman gets to ask Obama about single-payer at a Town Hall meeting and gets a weird, evasive response in return.
CSPAN Takes on HCAN!
"CSPAN is in the house!" said the host of the HCAN rally on April 18. A roar from the crowd. What the host DIDN'T say was that we were there to rally for single-payer and protest the sham of HCAN's proposed incremental reform. This report on the rally by member Helen Redmond will help clear the air.
01/21/2009 - Single Payer Teach-In
Download PDF of the Flyer (Color)
Download PDF of the Flyer (B/W)
Wednesday, January 21st
5:30 p.m.
at UIC College of Medicine
1853 W. Polk St.
Room TBA
(Dinner provided, ADA Accessible)
People are dying... We need National Single-Payer Health Care NOW!!!
The health care crisis in the United States affects everyone. Over 45 million people are uninsured and millions more are underinsured. With the economy in a recession and thousands losing jobs, the numbers of uninsured will go up. People are dying. The Institute of Medicine estimates that lack of health insurance leads to the unneccessary deaths of 18,000 Americans every year.
Health care reform is back on the national agenda. President-elect Barack Obama said reforming the health care system is a priority for his administration. But what is the best approach? A mix of public, private, and employer? A mandate like in Massachusetts? Single-payer?
Advocates for a single-payer health care system believe the government should finance health care. A single-payer system would cover everyone and end the privatized, employer-based system of coverage.
Congressman John Conyers has introduced a bill, HR 676, that proposes a national, single-payer health care system for the United States.
January 21st, a panel will discuss how a single-payer system works, a patient's perspective on the current system, and how to win single-payer.
Speakers will include Alan Jackson, MD, Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP)*, Vanessa Beck, patient and community organizer with Chicago Single-Payer Action Network (CSPAN)*, and Helen Redmond, LCSW CADC, emergency room social worker and community organizer with Chicago Single-Payer Action Network (CSPAN)*
* organizations listed for identification only
Come with your questions, concerns, and disagreements
Sponsored by CSPAN (Chicago Single Payer Action Network), American Medical Students Association (AMSA), the Illinois Student Occupational Therapy Association, and the Graduate Student Council... (List in formation)
09/23/2008 - Rally for Healthcare Justice!