Government delivery of healthcare more efficient than private sector by Egberto Willies

We hear about the belief that government can't do anything right, and yet we know that it delivers health care in a very efficient way.  


http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/12/29/government-healthcare-delivery-more-efficient-than-private-sector/

What's a Tweet? And what's all this Twitter about? : Computer Class

For those of you interested in learning the basics of twitter, PodCamp will be holding a free class at the Carnegie library in Oakland on Jan 9 with hands on training.  Details can be read below.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013  

6:00 PM - 7:30 PM

This mini-session of PodCamp Pittsburgh--a local annual conference about information sharing online--will introduce you to some of the most popular social networking tools. Learn why Twitter is being used in personal relationships and business. Don't have an account? We will set you up! Please feel free to bring your phone or laptop if you need help setting up and we'll walk you through.
Please call 412-578-2561 to register for this class.

Event web site: http://www.carnegielibrary.org/locations/pccenter/classinfo.cfm

Presented by: Michael

Event fee: Free

Sponsor: PodCamp Pittsburgh

Location:

PC Center - Main

4400 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Contact:

JCEC/PC Center Staff

412-578-2561

pccenter@carnegielibrary.org

Truth, Rock and Revolution Tour 2012 Begins Jan 5

Go to a demonstration or protest gathering in and around the ‘Burgh’ – for universal single-payer healthcare, a union for UPMC employees, against the shutdown of Braddock Hospital, against the endless wars overseas, alerting the public to the dangers of hydraulic fracking in the Marcellus Shale
region, memorials commemorating workers killed on the job – chances are Mike Stout will be there, with guitar in hand, rallying and firing up the troops.

From the steel mill shutdowns and food bank formations of the 1980s to the present day battles of poor and working people, for more than 30 years Mike’s music has chronicled these struggles, as well as the heroes and heroines who have led these fights for social and economic justice. And after 13 CDs, 9 tours of Europe and 125 songs later, this musical ever-ready battery just keeps on ticking.
His upcoming 2013 Tour will begin Jan. 5 at Southside’s Club Café, take him through a Quaker High School in eastern Ohio, Detroit and Ann Arbor in March, Lexington Kentucky, Washington DC in April, Philadelphia on May Day and Germany in late May, peppered with appearances in and around the
Burgh that are yearly staples, such as Workers Memorial Day on April 28 in Market Square.

His band of seasoned Pittsburgh musicians and vocalists not only put on a hell of a show, with superb craftsmanship and intricate harmonies, but raise funds for needy causes and organizations, ranging over the years from the Pgh. Community Food Bank and Just Harvest, to the Thomas Merton Center and Healthcare4allpa. The Jan. 5 Club Café Show will pass the buckets for “Water For the
Woodlands,” an area of Butler County with more than a dozen families and households whose water has been poisoned with the advent of hydraulic fracking nearby, and who have no source of clean water for
drinking and bathing.

Doors Open 6 PM - Show Time 7 PM
Club Cafe on the Southside
56-58 South 12 Street, Pittsburgh, Pa

Purchase Tickets Online at Club Cafe.com
or call Mike at 412.461.5650
www.mikestoutmusic.com

Truth, Rock and Revolution Tour 2012

The Healthy Artists Movie Poster Exhibition Jan 4

January 4th 2013:

20 of Pittsburgh’s favorite artists compete to design a poster representing the Healthy Artists documentary series (www.healthyartists.org)  and win the hearts of judges from the Criterion Collection, MASS MoCA, Warhol Museum, and Steeltown Film Factory.  Artists include: Stephanie Armbruster, David Bernabo, Seth Clark, Doug Dean, Corey Escoto, Jenn Gooch, Mundania Horvath, Jasen Lex, Jim Rugg, Andy Scott, Lizzee Solomon, and Hyla Willis.

 

The United States is the only industrialized nation not to offer some form of healthcare to its citizens, points out Julie Sokolow, local documentary filmmaker and founder of the arts and social-justice organization Healthy Artists. "Why aren't more people engaged with this?" she asks. Why aren't more people demanding that this country catch up with the rest of the world? Perhaps people need a little extra inspiration -- and maybe young people can lead the way, Sokolow posits. That's where Healthy Artists comes in. On Jan. 4, 2013, 7-10 pm, at Modern Formations Gallery [4919 PENN AVE., GARFIELD, Healthy Artists will open “The Healthy Artists Movie Poster Exhibition,” a month-long show of art urging young people to become as involved in the health-care issue as they were in presidential politics when Barack Obama originally ran. In conceiving the exhibition, Sokolow's thoughts turned to the power of the now-iconic blue-and-red "Hope" poster of Obama created by Shepard Fairey for 2008. For the Jan. 4 event, Healthy Artists has gotten 15 local professional artists and five student artists each to create a movie-style poster around the group's original effort, a documentary film series on artists discussing their work and their difficulties with health care. As Sokolow points out, these young creatives are in an age bracket -- 19 to 29 -- who make up 30 percent of this country's 49 million uninsured. "Artists are just a metaphor for anyone who has a dream they want to accomplish," she says. "Anyone with a dream can relate to that." But instead of gathering terrible stories of medical bankruptcy and untreated illness, Healthy Artists "is highlighting how having health care would liberate so many people. It's about making life easier for people and people not feeling shackled to jobs because they need the healthcare the job provides. If we're the greatest country on earth, we should be investing in our citizens as the other countries are. "We want people to recognize that it's to their benefit to get involved, that they can use their talents to get involved," she adds. "We want to create new ways to be an activist." Healthy Artists is teaming with Be Well! Pittsburgh -- which earlier got a Sprout Fund grant to compile health-care options for the uninsured -- and Original Magazine to help publicize the issue. Healthy Artists -- itself the recipient of a Sprout Fund grant -- will also team with Healthcare 4All-PA to present the latter's study on Jan. 4 concerning how a single-payer healthcare plan would benefit Pennsylvania. An effort to create a single-payer healthcare is currently underway in Vermont. After the exhibition and the other work of Healthy Artists and its collaborators, Sokolow hopes another city will be inspired by Pittsburgh. More information on the exhibition's opening night (which includes free food, drink and music from the Harlan Twins), as well as on the exhibition's artists and judges, is available at the Healthy Artists website. Do Good: Looking for additional ways to help with the healthcare issue? Volunteer with Healthcare 4All-PA by clicking here. 

Writer: Marty Levine 
Source: Julie Sokolow, Healthy Artists

The First Year of the PUSH Healthcare for All PA Blog

Your doctor, your choice

This is one of the slogans we believe in here at Healthcare for All PA.  It has been one year since we set up this blog.  The popular posts listed on the right are the top 5 for the last 30 days and since the blog began.  A more comprehensive list of the 10 most popular posts, out of 110 total, since the blog began, according to the built in stat counter, are listed below.

1.  Bob Mason's Letter to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

This one has received a lot of hits due to excellent writing by state VP Bob Mason on how the state Department of Public Welfare has dropped hospital care for newborns.


2.  Santorum: No One Has Ever Died Because They Didn’t Have Health Care | The New Civil Rights Movement

While running for president last winter Senator Santorum denied that anyone dies due to a lack of health insurance.  This post got a big response as it debunked his statement.

3.  Healthy Artists Video on Bicyclists Injury

This video post received a big response among the Pittsburgh's cycling community.  It is pro Affordable Care Act which we acknowledge does some good but needs big improvements.

4. Special Screening of Tony Buba Documentary on Braddock Hospital Closing

There was a big turnout for the special screening of the documentary 'We Are Alive' in early November.  It is about the struggle to keep Braddock Hospital open and it's impact on the community.

5.  Mike Stout & the Human Union Band Concert 

The blog was used to promote the concert by Mike Stout's band to raise money for PUSH and the Thomas Merton Center.

6.  If Vermont Won't Have Single Payer What Will it Have?

This post which discussed whether Vermont's Single Payer plan is really single player.  also received a big response and was published in the Thomas Merton Center's New People.

7.  The Supreme Pennsylvania Medicaid Decision

There was a huge upsurge in traffic in the wake of the Supreme Courts decision which upheld the Affordable Care Act in June.  The initial euphoria was tempered by the part which allowed the states to opt out of Medicaid expansion.  



8. Moving Backward

Blogger Lloyd Stires did an excellent skewering of the plan Paul Ryan-Ron Wyden plan to fix Medicare.

9.  Dan Onorato's Happy New Year

Lloyd Stires also gave the activist community an important heads up as outgoing County Executive Dan Onorato, after losing his bid to be governor of PA, was given a lucrative job by Highmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield. 

There are many other posts of which we are proud.  Many of these are linked to in the posts above and the tags below.  We encourage you to check them all out as well as the battles promise to continue rage on over the affordable care act in the coming year and we will continue to PUSH for single payer in Pennsylvania.

10. New Census Uninsured Data Out: White & Female Rates Getting Worse in PA

gender	%2010	MOE +/- %	% 2009	MOE +/- %	% 2008	MOE +/- %
Male	13.3	0.3	13.3	0.3	11.7	0.3
Female	10.8	0.3	10.0	0.2	9.5	0.2

 
The Small Area Health Insurance Estimates or SAHIE from the Census Bureau show that the uninsured problem in Pennsylvania was spreading to women and whites while remaining steady in African Americans and Hispanics in 2010.  This is their most recent year available.

Healthy Artists on the Future of Health Care

Do you have a right to quality (lifetime) (affordable) healthcare?

Healthy Artists has posted a video on YouTube of testimonials by uninsured artists at their Dazzletine event. 

Exchange Explanation

Who deserves affordable quality healthcare? Is it you?

Will the exchanges provide it?  Antoinette Kraus of the Pennsylvania Health Access Network gave an interview with Patty Satalia of WPSU to explain the what the health insurance exchanges are and what the likely actions are if Gov. Corbett fails to set up a statewide exchange by the Dec. 14 deadline.  It can be heard at the link below. 

Health Insurance Exchanges
 

Via: The Advisory Board Company

The Federal Government will set one up for PA in that case.  The map above, in addition to showing which states are not participating in Medicaid expansion (now up to 9 states in red), shows which have state run exchanges with chopping carts, federal with capital domes, or partnerships in Illinois.  This is another thing going on at the same time as the fiscal cliff negotiations.

As an aside it was a successful Healthcare salon last Saturday with about 70 attendees and a lively discussion on the need for single payer plus efforts to make the industry more environmentally friendly with another talk by the Pittsburgh Threshold Choir on how to use music to comfort those at the end of their lives.

**Related Posts**

The Supreme Pennsylvania Medicaid Decision

 

Affordable Care Act Battles Rage at the State Level

Affordable Care Act Battles Rage at the State Level

Quality, affordable healthcare for your life. Guaranteed 

That is what single payer promises like it delivers in every other industrialized nation.  Is that what the Affordable Care Act will deliver?  Below discusses where is stands after the election.


Via: The Advisory Board Company

With the election over, the battle now rages over the implementation of the Affordable Care Act at the state level.  The above map shows which states are currently are and are not (mostly southern) participating in the Medicaid expansion (which the Supreme Court decision last summer made optional) and which are implementing exchanges.  Pennsylvania is still undecided on both counts.  You can see the links below and the tabs above for background info.  

A reminder about the healthcare sustainability salon & sing on Sat. Dec. 1 where this and other health care issues will be discussed.    

**Related Posts**

Medicare and Medicaid Are superior to private insurance in certain ways

 

New Graphic Explaining Medicare and Medicaid

  

The Supreme Pennsylvania Medicaid Decision

 

Since August, 88,000 Pennsylvania children have lost Medicaid benefits - Philly.com

Dec 1 Health Care Sustainability Salon & Sing.

On Dec 1 there will be an event at Maren Cooke's house in Squirrel Hill off of Beechwood Blvd called a Sustainability Salon & Sing.  This salon is modeled after the salons of 18th century enlightenment Paris.  Below is what appeared her blog about the event with and at the bottom is an image of her on the roof of her house plus a panoramic image of her roof with solar panels.  There will be a potluck dinner, tours of her house, activities for kids, the speakers listed below including those from healthcare for all/PUSH, and a group folksing afterward.  All in all a very enjoyable and intellectually stimulating evening.  

Dec 1: Health Care Sustainability Salon & Sing

Health Care and Sustainability:  Several speakers will share what they've been doing to improve how health care is done in this country -- from a sustainability point of view.

Most directly, local physician Dr. Noe Copley-Woods will talk about the waste endemic to current medical practice, and efforts to green it here and around the world (e.g. Health Care Without Harm).

Since we're also seeking sustainability as a society, folks from Health Care For All/PA will share what that organization is doing to improve access to health care.

And we'll talk about the connection between end-of-life choices and sustainability, with a musical dimension:  there are many differences (including environmental cost) between dying in a hospital hooked up to machines, undergoing umpteen procedures, and dying in hospice care, surrounded by loved ones...  Cindy Harris, leader of the Pittsburgh Threshold Choir, helps ease that process with bedside song.

Check back here for updates on topics, speakers, and logistics.  The basics are: 3-10 p.m. at our home in Frick Park;  RSVP by email (with "salon" in the Subject line);  potluck food and drink for afternoon noshings and dinner, which is followed by an informal folksing.

Pennsylvania Voters Want a Better Health Care Law

Exit polls are a wealth of information on the thinking of the voters in an election.  For this year's election all of the networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN, and AP) used the same exit poll to save money with a national sample of 26,517.  The methodology for the exit poll can be read here.  There were some questions left blank on the survey, particularly the later issue questions such as the ones for the one for the health care law "What should happen to the health care law?".  Nationally only 5,043 completed that question which was late on the questionnaire.  Above I linked to the ABC news page for the exit poll which shows the sample size for each question and how they voted for each candidate.

For Pennsylvania there was a total sample of 2,908 in the exit poll.  Of the this sample, 1,019 responded to the health care law which is 20.2% of the total responses to this question.  The table below shows that a different pattern emerges for the question in the national responses compared to Pennsylvania. 

	National 2012 N=5,043	Pennsylvania 2012 N=1,019	Pennsylvania 2010 N=2,627 (tot. sample)
Expand  or keep it the same	44%	51%	52%
Repeal some or all of it	48%	46%	45%
Margin of Error (+/-)	1%	3%	2%

According to the national exit poll it would seem that a plurality of voters would like some or all of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) repealed but only 19% of the total sample responded to the question.  This only a problem if the responders are similar to the population as a whole.  That this result is not consistent with other national polls which were done around the time of the Supreme Court interpretation found a similar split to the Pennsylvania result. 

For the Pennsylvania exit poll, a slight majority of respondents believed the ACA should be expanded or kept the same.  This result is the same as the 2010 exit poll from the Senate race between Pat Toomey and Joe Sestak.  That year was considered a landslide for Republicans.  35% of the total state sample responded to this question as well as other question suggests either that this and other issues resonate more with this state's voters or that there is a sampling issue in other states.  Regardless these results suggest that there is still fertile ground for health care activists in Pennsylvania among the electorate.

**Related Posts**

Healthcare Polls in Anticipation of SCOTUS Decision

 

POLL: Dislike of healthcare law crosses party lines, 1 in 4 Dems want repeal - TheHill.com (But Doesn't Ask Why) 

 

The US and Republicans Want Health Care Law Repealed....?

PodCamp 7 Presentation on Social Media for Non Profits

Zack Tanner from WQED gave a talk at PodCamp about how they use social media to improve their practice in the face of budget cuts from the federal and state governments.

Crowdsourcing at Red Blue Voice.com

Last weekend was a productive one at PodCamp.  I met several activists interested in using social media to get their message out.  I went to some informative sessions and the session I gave on presenting statistics in social media went well.  There were others that I missed because they were going on at the same time.  The day began with the keynote address by the creators of the YouTube series Pittsburgh Dad.  This is enlightening because it shows how new media is challenging old media.

Of particular interest for was the session I went to on Crowdsourcing by Josh Lucas.  He is one of the the creators of Red Blue Voice (Now defunct but kick starter works) which allows groups and individuals to advocate for issues and causes. Kickstarter is another type of crowdsourcing site which Tony Buba used to raise funds for the film on Braddock Hospital closing called We Are Alive.

**Related Posts**

Special Screening of Tony Buba Documentary on Braddock Hospital Closing

 

New Mike Stout Video on Braddock's Need for a New Community Hospital

 

PodCamp 7 Sessions are Being Announced

The Elephant in the Room

My wife penned the following letter to the editor and submitted it to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this past Saturday.  I believe that you will find her presentation compelling.

Karen Wolk Feinstein, President and CEO of the Jewish Health Care Foundation, noted to a group of experts attending a day-long meeting at the foundation's training center on Thursday that "40 cents of every health care dollar spent is wasted on preventable complications, unnecessary treatment, errors and general inefficiencies".  ("What's on the horizon in health care?" October 19)  According to the Institute of Medicine the estimated total annual waste is $765 billion.  The National Academy of Sciences breaks this down as follows:  fraud and inadequate prevention, 17%; unnecessary treatment, 28%; unnecessary high prices, 14%; inefficiently delivered services due to lack of coordination among doctors, hospitals, and other providers, 14%; and, excess administrative costs as a result of too many private insurance companies and types of insurance, 25%.  The elephant in the room that no one wants to mention is that last 25% of wasted money caused by our current health insurance system.  That is $191 billion per year.  Perhaps political contributions, charitable donations, and advertising revenue keep us from pointing to the elephant.

In contrast, Medicare, our national single payer system of publicly financed, privately delivered health care, has administrative overhead of less than 5%.  Pennsylvania has its own single payer solution, the Family and Busniness Health Security Act, SB 400/  HB 2551.  When we adopt this, presto, the elephant vanishes.

Tirzah Mason
Trafford, PA

Special Screening of Tony Buba Documentary on Braddock Hospital Closing

We Are Alive Trailer from Tony Buba on Vimeo.

On November 9 there will be a special screening of Tony Buba's new documentary "We are Alive! The Fight to Save Braddock Hospital" at the Regent Square Theater in Pittsburgh which should be part of the Three Rivers Film Festival or 3RFF.com. Showtime 7PM on a Friday.  The film should include Mike Stout singing a tribute to the people of Braddock which can be seen at the link in related posts below.  More information can be read at the link to the Post-Gazette below. 

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-east/braddock-hills-man-turns-to-web-to-complete-upmc-film-658070/#ixzz29fk2EphK

**Update**

Tickets are $10 with a six pack of $50 available in advance from showclix.com.  Further 3 Rivers info can be read at:

Potential Oscar contenders among 3 Rivers film fest offerings

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/movies/potential-oscar-contenders-among-3-rivers-film-fest-offerings-658190/#ixzz29lnkCtPj 

**Related Posts**

New Mike Stout Video on Braddock's Need for a New Community Hospital

Unbelievable Promises Monopolized Care—UPMC