This Blog is Being Merged with the State Blog

Hi All.  It was a great concert on Saturday night with a great turnout.  Mike Stout and the Human Union debuted a new song and video which can be seen above.

All 221 posts from this blog have been exported into the blog on the state page which can be seen at the link below.  This site will now be used for local announcements.

http://www.healthcare4allpa.org/resources/home-blog/

New State Website is UP!!

The statewide organization for Healthcare for All PA has a new website with lots of accessible information on single payer, especially with links to the full economic impact study.  It can be viewed at the link below

http://www.healthcare4allpa.org/

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.

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

Podcamp 7 Sessions are Being Announced

The Sessions for this year's PodCamp are being announced for Oct. 27 & 28 at Point Park University.  So far on Saturday the 27th there are 19 sessions to choose from (including one by me on statistics and social media) and 12 on Sunday.  Of particular interest to PUSH/Healthcare4All PA members includes one on Social Media and the Media by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Kim Lyons, a panel discussion of Old Media and New Media by 2 Political Junkies Blogger David DeAngelo and KDKA political reporter Jon Delano, Josh Lucas has one on How Crowdsourcing Can Drive Nonprofit Engagement, and Zack Tanner has one on Social Media for Non-Profits.  New ones are being added as of this writing and they are still taking submissions for new sessions here. The theme for this year is Build Your Digital Toolbox.  The keynote speakers are still being determined.  Below is the PodCamp 4 Keynote Address with PodCamp Pittsburgh founder Justin Kownacki and Pittsburgh City Councilman Bill Peduto.

 

**Related Posts**

PodCamp 7 is Coming 

New People Article on Vermont's Single Payer Plan and PodCamp Update

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

I am often asked to show individuals how to use Twitter, Facebook and/or Blogspot.  Podcamp provides free classes on these topics.  This can be an effective tool in supporting nonprofits as well as relationships and business.  This next Wednesday, July 18, they will be having a free class on how to use Twitter.  I recommend that all who are interested attend.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012  

6:00 PM - 8:00 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.

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:

PC Center Staff

412-578-2561

pccenter@carnegielibrary.org

Registration is required for this event.
You can register by calling 412-578-2561 or by filling in the form below and clicking on the Register button.

Those Rapacious Health Insurers Raise Premiums 9% This Year for Job Based Health Insurance

This is a guest post that originally appeared in the Huffington Post by Pearl Korn from Oct 5, 2011.  This is reprinted with her permission.
 

Last Tuesday the Kaiser Family Foundation, a highly respected nonprofit health research organization, released its annual health insurance survey based on its research of some 2,100 small and large firms. Kaiser reported a whopping 9% rise in premiums this year for family plans and an 8% increase for single plans. These increases do not reflect additional out-of-pocket costs workers pay for healthcare, such as co-pays, deductibles and prescriptions. These plans cover some 150 million in the work force.

Closer scrutiny of these numbers is required to clearly see and understand how the model of job-based insurance is becoming a serious and eroding issue to Americans economically. Kaiser documents that in the past decade, workers' wages rose 34%, while inflation increased 27%. However, in 2011 earnings rose 2% while inflation rose 3%. Job-based healthcare plans now cost a whopping $15,000 per year for a family, with workers picking up $4,129 of that amount, meaning that workers' share of healthcare costs has risen a stunning 131% in 10 years. The cost for a single employee plan comes in at $5,429, with the workers' share rising an even more shocking 159% during the decade. Add to this increasingly unbearable burden the fact that 31% of covered workers are now in high-deductible plans, which can range from $1,000 and up. One should note that the bulk of the costs in these plans are paid by employers, for which they receive tax breaks. This story made the front page of the New York Times last Wednesday as the details of Kaiser's report were rolling out, and also hit The News Hour on PBS as well as McClatchy Newspapers. Even Nancy-Ann DeParle, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy in the White House, weighed in on this issue, particularly as it related to insurers profits.

Barclays Capital reported that 13 of the 14 top health insurers beat their projected earnings in the last quarter, with profits coming in at hefty 46% higher than expectations. Insurance CEO's must be living large with their booming industry, one of the few growing sectors in this stagnant economy. This 9% increase in premiums is the highest since 2005, and comes on top of a 3% rise in healthcare costs in 2010. Speculation is plentiful. Will costs continue to rise, or drop as they had in the preceding few years? Is the recession a factor? And has this increase come in anticipation of more of the Affordable Care Act kicking in next year? After all, these increased rates were set last year, so they would be more proactive than reactive to the current situation. These increases in co-pays, premiums and deductibles makes the current health care model an unattractive and faulty product that encourages lack of use, with more of the costs increasingly shifted to the workers, two factors that would play a significant role in increased insurer profits.

Another discouraging ploy to limit healthcare use is the growing trend toward tax-preferred health savings accounts, with money regularly placed in accounts to be used for medical needs. This appeals to the young, who believe they will never become ill or in need. The money keeps growing, which in itself is an attraction to keep on saving and not use healthcare services, delaying needed healthcare that can only lead to deeper crises down the road, when serious, more complex illness sets in and the system becomes overwhelmed. What then?

The health insurance costs for those in the individual and small business markets are even worse. One insurer last year in California sought a 38% increase in premiums for individual policyholders, outraging the nation. If we factor in the acknowledged 50 million with out health insurance, and add in those 23 million unemployed and underemployed, we have a serious problem. We have an unsustainable, fractured healthcare system that, simply put, does not work for anyone except the insurers and drug industry.

Of course, one would think that corporations would also get that they should not be in the business of providing healthcare, at least if that is not already their primary function. Are we not the only industrialized nation that places such a tremendous responsibility and burden on corporations? They should be unburdening themselves from the responsibility and costs by becoming major advocates and players in the growing movement pushing for an Improved and Expanded Medicare For All. Now that would be lobbying most of us could support. Corporate America would be off the hook and would only pay a reasonable tax -- along with their employees -- to provide a true National Healthcare system. As the current, patchwork, failed system continues down its current path, it is clear there is really only one makes sense solution -- a single payer system with an administrative cost currently of only around 3%. This would save our nation $400 billion annually and could provide quality healthcare to one and all at half the cost of the current system. Where are the deficit hawks on this thinking?

Just look at the single payer model of the VA, which has provided innovative, efficient and quality healthcare to our veterans, not to mention negotiating prescription drug costs directly with pharmaceutical companies. Another model would be Medicare, at least before the specter of privatization crept in. The ACA leaves prescription drug negotiating out, which also occurs in Medicare Part D plan, offering little more than tremendous gifts to the drug companies. As health plans begin to roll out and hit our mailboxes, there will be shocks aplenty. Some information I received over the weekend from my insurer clearly shows further slicing and dicing of benefits, with costs hiked significantly across the board for all services and drugs, especially those nasty, annoying co-pays. Meanwhile, insurance CEO'S are hopping, skipping and jumping all the way to the bank, with their high multi-million dollar annual salaries and perks. Take from the poor and middle class and give to the rich -- Robin Hood must be rolling in his mythical grave.

Next year, to implement any rate increase above 10% for new enrollees in plans, insurers will have to go public and justify those rate increases to state regulators. This is law in the ACA, one of the several good inclusions in the bill, and could affect those 30-odd million that would be insured under the ACA who are currently uninsured. But does that mean premium increases of 9.5% would go unchallenged? Employers will make every effort to opt out of providing health insurance to their workers, sending them off to join an ACA subsidized plan if they qualify. The costs of workers' healthcare now -- on a state and corporate level -- has produced fierce battles in many states to downsize workers benefits in union contracts. Collective bargaining was the big summer issue across the country, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future as states under GOP control continue to decimate workers' rights, especially targeting health benefits.

In the coming months, we can also look to the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of ACA. Last week, the president and 26 states contacted the high court to move forward on this issue. Surely, the question of the government mandating the public to buy a commercial product will be hotly debated. All of this will play out just before the election, giving the GOP a powerful weapon to distract the public and aim at the president, which may ultimately sink his chances of being re-elected, especially if the moribund economy and jobless rate continue unabated in 2012.

-- With Jonathan Stone