Please come to Philadelphia this Saturday for the 5th anniversary "Sicko" reunion. Meet Wendell Potter as well and learn about the very much alive and well single-payer healthcare movement.

Jerry Policoff at the state board of Healthcare for All PA has written an OP/Ed on the upcoming One Payer States conference in Philadelphia this weekend.

Subject: healthcare4allpa Please come to Philadelphia this Saturday for the 5th anniversary "Sicko" reunion.  Meet Wendell Potter as well and learn about the very much alive and well single-payer healthcare movement.

Below is my Op Ed News article that will probably be up and headlined by the time you receive this.  You won't want to miss these two exciting events.

Still "SiCKO After All These Years

Jerry Policoff/Op Ed News

Article Link: /articles/Still-SiCKO-After-All-Th-by-Jerry-Policoff-120628-166.html

If you care about affordable, accessible health care in the United States you'll want to be in Pennsylvania this weekend for two remarkable events that will re-unite Oscar-winning documentary film maker Michael Moore with the cast of his 2007 ground breaking film, "SiCKO," on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the film's release.  Former Cigna executive turned whistleblower, Wendell Potter will be there as well in another reunion of sorts.  Moore and Potter have never shared a stage face-to-face before, but Wendell Potter's last official act before re3signing from Cigna was to attend the premiere of "SiCKO" to spy on Michael Moore and his film on behalf of the health insurance industry. 

The events:

Saturday, June 30, 2012 4-6 PM: An Intimate Reception with Michael Moore and Wendell Potter  

William Way Center Ballroom, 1315 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pa.  $100 minimum donation

Meet and chat with Michael Moore and Wendell Potter and hear the latest on the movement for universal healthcare in the U.S. from movement leaders from around the country.  Includes a light dinner.   Order reception tickets at http://tiny.cc/sickoreception

Saturday, June 30, 2012 7-9 PM:  "Still SiCKO After All These Years"

Plays and Players Theater, 1714 Delancy Street, Philadelphia, Pa. $40 Minimum Donation.

Join Wendell Potter as he reunites with the cast of "SiCKO" for a Q&A and discussion looking back at  how the film impacted their lives five years after its release.  Order tickets at: http://tiny.cc/sicko5

Proceeds to benefit Vermont Public Assets Institute (publicassets.org) and Healthcare-NOW! (healthcare-now.org).  Vermont Public Assets Institute is working to defend the newly passed Vermont single-payer healthcare law, already under assault from healthcare special interests.  Healthcare-NOW is a national single-payer advocacy group.

By Saturday the Supreme Court will have ruled on the whether all or part of President Obama's Affordable Act will remain the law of the land, but regardless of the Court's actions, and unbeknownst to much of the nation, the universal healthcare "single-payer" movement is very much alive, especially in the individual states where some 22 state-based single-payer movements are hard at work.   Advocates of state passage will be meeting in their annual "One Payer States" conference on Sunday, also in Philadelphia (not open to the general public, to compare notes, map out future strategy, and discuss the implications of the Court ruling.  Those items will certainly also be a major topic for discussion at Saturday's public events. 

Did you know that the Affordable Care Act contains state waiver provisions that would allow states  to experiment with alternative reforms  to the Exchanges, including single-payer  starting in 2017, or that President Obama has endorsed moving that waiver date up to 2014?  Were you aware that Vermont has already passed a single-payer bill and is currently studying how to implement it even as special interests mount a major pushback campaign against it?  Wendell Potter is a supporter of the Affordable Care Act as well as a single-payer advocate who is actively involved in assisting and defending the Vermont single-payer experiment.  You probably do not know that the Governor of Hawaii is a strong single-payer advocate who campaigned on establishing a single-payer system there, or that his Legislature as well as the Hawaii AMA are largely supportive.  A study group has already been formed in Hawaii in preparation for enacting single-payer legislation there.

So come one, come all to Philadelphia this Saturday for an entertaining and constructive learning experience.  You'll also be helping advance the U.S. move to truly comprehensive universal healthcare.  The U.S. is alone among the advanced industrialized countries on this planet to have so far failed to provide affordable, comprehensive health care to all of its citizens.

Jerry Policoff

1117 Wheatland Avenue/ H-4

Lancaster, Pa. 17603

Home phone:  717-295-0237

Cell: 717-682-4434

www.healthcare4ALLPA.org

Face Book Causes: HealthCare4ALLPA