Spring 2006 issue of "CommonHealth," the biannual newsletter of the Universal Health Care Education Fund (UHCEF) and Mass-Care.

1. CommonHealth Volume 2, Number 2 ~ Spring 2006
Universal Health Care Education Fund
Message from Executive Director Benjamin Day
Dear Friends and Supporters of Single Payer Health Care,
It is now too warm to be the winter of our discontent, but as the seasons turned this year,
Massachusetts passed “landmark” new health care Legislation that is leaving many of us wondering
if discontent might not be a year-round job. For the first time anywhere in the world, we have
passed a law requiring individuals to buy their own health insurance, most without any assistance
whatsoever. We have designed a penalty for employers not covering their workers that is so cheap
and ineffective, it could hardly be used to subsidize office supplies, much less the families we can
now expect to be pushed off of corporate health care rolls. There is more than enough discontent
to go around, as our skyrocketing health care costs, which ultimately make universal coverage so
difficult, have been left in the hands of HMOs and private insurance companies to swell even
further. Unions will continue having to fight off concessions and cost-shifting, and our senior
population will continue to face unaffordable out-of-pocket costs not covered by Medicare.
MASS-CARE and its nonprofit sister organization, the Universal Health Care Education Fund, would like to ask you for
your support this year as we ramp up our organizing efforts at this crucial juncture. MASS-CARE has recently
reorganized itself in order to build a dues-paying membership base, and we will be working in the immediate future to
support and politicize the communities most affected by this Bill; act as a clearing house for getting timely
information and analyses from progressive health care experts to the rest of the movement; and fight to put real
health care reform back on the table for everyone. We have our work cut out for us, but we look forward to reengaging
with MASS-CARE’s member organizations, with health care reform activists across the state, and with the communities
and families who desperately need a voice and a movement for their health.
MASS-CARE needs your support for the Eighth Annual Dr. Benjamin Gill Memorial Award Reception, which will be held
this year on Saturday, May 13, at the Dante Alighieri Cultural Center in Cambridge, a ten-minute wall from the
Kendall/MIT stop on the MBTA’s Red Line.
We will be honoring the outstanding contributions of three exceptional activists and scholars in the field of health
care reform: Margaret O’Malley of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, and Alan Sager and Deborah Socolar of
Boston University’s School of Public Health.
We are also planning to have a teaching session about the new bill and what
we have to do to move the single payer plan forward. This session will begin
at 3:00 and end at 4:45. Food and beverage will be available around 5:00, with Table of Contents
the program slated to begin at 5:30. The program will include talks by Page 1: Executive Director’s Message
veteran strategists and political activists, as well as music from the string Page 2: MASS-CARE Statement
ensemble of the Consortium for Psychotherapy. A silent auction will be held on Romney Insurance Bill
during the program. Membership Drive
Page 3: Here’s what people are saying
We are asking individuals who attend to contribute $35 or whatever is Page 4: Dr. Benjamin Gill Gala
reasonable for you. Please feel welcome to bring significant or insignificant JwJ Health Care Action
others, and children or friends. We hope to see you all there!

2. The New “Universal“ Health Bill
“Health care bill will disappoint, hurt low-income families,” say advocates and policy experts
Statement by the Massachusetts Campaign for Single Payer Health Care, April 2006
If the new much touted bill is kinder to insurance “This bill is going to exacerbate the crisis in
companies that to the low-income uninsured, we should not Massachusetts health care,” comments Sandy Eaton, RN,
be surprised. We were told on April 5th by Scott Helman Chair of MASS-CARE, an association of ninety state
of the Globe that lobbyists for insurance companies, organizations who all believe a single-payer program is the
pharmaceutical companies and big hospitals had least expensive and most effective way to solve our
increased their spending by a third while the bill was being enormous problems in paying for first-class health care.
debated. It will move more people into individual health plans, the
costliest and most wasteful insurance plans on the planet,
without taking any steps to contain the costs that neither
the state and its employers nor its residents can afford.
Only a plan that consolidates health care finance and
streamlines delivery can provide quality sustainable health
care for all. Such a plan is the single-payer model adopted
successfully in much of the rest of the world, whose costs
are less than ours while their citizens are generally
healthier.”
Announcing an historic turn for MASS-CARE
Many uninsured are required by the bill to purchase some
form of insurance through the private market or face On April 8th, the MASS-CARE Coordinating Committee
stiff penalties on their tax forms. Even a stripped-down, voted to launch an individual-member wing of our
poor quality plan is likely to cost more than they can statewide movement to create a just healthcare system.
afford, and the bill does not raise enough costs to The goal is to establish a grassroots base for change in
subsidize even a fraction of these new costs. It raises each legislative district. As each local organizing
only $170 million a year which, according to Alan Sager, is committee reaches ten members, it will have a seat on the
“a drop in the bucket of Massachusetts health care where MASS-CARE CC, with voice and vote. We hope to replicate
spending this year will be $59 billion.” the excellent ferment generated by such constituents as
the Franklin-Hampshire Health Care Coalition and
Uninsured individuals who are at three times the poverty Berkshire MASS-CARE in every corner of Massachusetts.
line, and to whom the bill promises no financial assistance,
will be forced to pay over 20 percent of their income to We urge all supporters to take the pledge to campaign for
cover health care insurance, according to the best healthcare justice, to fill out the pledge form and send it
estimates available. While real incomes for the poor have to our Beacon Street office with $25. Of course no one
been falling, and may continue to fall, the insurance costs will be kept away for lack of funds, and the extra-
they will now have to pay are likely to continue to rise. generous support of so many should continue. The
response from groups and individuals to our December
Furthermore, “the bill will worsen the complex and costly appeal was so gratifying that we feel confident in hiring
administrative system that wastes funds needed to pay a full-time executive director/organizer.
for actual health services,” says Alice Rothschild, MD,
Board President of the Alliance to Defend Health Care.
The bill is also likely to encourage employers currently
providing health care for their work force to push
employees into the individual mandate, as the fees
imposed on employers not covering their workers are far
lower than the costs of the poorest quality workforce
health plans in the state.

3. Here’s what people are saying
“Want affordable, quality, sustainable health care for all?
"American health care corporations and insurance Get a plan that consolidates health care finance,
companies are right next door to us and have been streamlines delivery, and eliminates waste (including
hankering for years to break up public medicare in advertising, lobbying, and union-busting costs).” - Jon
Canada and sell us on their profit-focused schemes that Weisman, NALC & JwJ, April 10, 2006
leave so many Americans without proper health care." -
Debra McPherson, British Columbia Nurses Union, “If we were to take the $9,100/year per person that we
February 15, 2006 spend in Massachusetts ... and use it for health care
rather than insurance company profits, we would be able
“[W]hen it comes to improving coverage, state government to provide truly universal, affordable, continuous,
conceived an elephant but gave birth to a mouse.” - Alan equitable and comprehensive care ... .” - Susanne King, MD,
Sager, PhD, BU School of Public Health, March 20, 2006 Lenox, Berkshire Eagle, April 11, 2006
“The recent healthcare compromise is a completely one- “The interests of insurers, hospitals, and employers have
sided victory for the business sector.” - Massachusetts been well-addressed. But there is nothing for those who
AFL-CIO President Robert J. Haynes, April 3, 2006 are, and have been, on their own and self-insured.” -
Lorllyn Allan, Somerset, Boston Globe, April 12, 2006
"Who would have thought that Massachusetts would take a
page out of the Newt Gingrich playbook for health care “The Beacon Hill solution is little more than a giveaway to
reform?" - John Sweeney, AFL-CIO, April 5, 2006 the insurance companies. So many new customers!” -
Kathleen Bridgewater, Amherst LWV, April 16, 2006
“Massachusetts politicians just built the healthcare
McMansion of their dreams. Now, where do they get the “Although the editorial page may tell you to rejoice, we
money... ?” - Joan Vennochi, Boston Globe, April 6, 2006 would tell you to organize.” - Benjamin Day, MASS-CARE,
Boston Globe, April 16, 2006
“Could this bill be yet another juggernaut, a Medicare Part
‘D’ clone, which ... is merely a thinly masked windfall for “Business can now pay $295 a year per employee instead
HMOs?” - David A Hopkins, Colrain, April 6, 2006 of a couple of thousand, so they'll do what? Drop good
plans, pay the cheap fee, and come out way ahead.” - Ric
''The only redeeming part of the bill is that it says it will Gerace, Falmouth, Boston Globe, April 16, 2006
provide absolute coverage for the very poorest citizens.
If there isn't enough money to meet those obligations, “Romney said, ‘The old single-payer canard is gone.’ No, it
then what?" - Secretary of State Bill Galvin, April 6, 2006 isn't. Sooner or later, that is exactly what we'll need if
we're really serious about universal healthcare.” - Marcia
“We are up against the 7.5 million dollars lobbyists Angell, MD, Boston Globe, April 17, 2006
received to secure the ‘compromise’ legislation and the
interests of the ‘stakeholders’ AIM, BC/BS, Harvard “The solution that would really put healthcare dollars, and
Pilgrim, Massachusetts Hospital Association, Eli Lily, providers, to their best use would be a single-payer system
Partners Healthcare System.” - John Horgan, JwJ & - namely, government-funded health coverage for all.” -
IBEW, April 7, 2006 Benjamin Brewer, MD, Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2006
“Our consistent opposition to such concepts as the “The real news is that the insurance will have more holes
individual mandate to purchase health insurance, proposed than Swiss cheese, won't curtail skyrocketing health care
last summer by Governor Mitt Romney and spelled out last costs.” - James O'Keefe, Grace Ross, Jill Stein, Owen R.
October in a report from the Urban Institute Broadhurst, Nat Fortune, Somerville Jour.., April 20, 2006
commissioned by the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Foundation of
Massachusetts, stands unshaken.” - Sandy Eaton, RN, "If you follow the money trail of wasted dollars in our
MASS-CARE, April 7, 2006 health care system, you'll find yourself at the doorstep of
the multiple private insurance companies who waste up to
“Your reports about Massachusetts' health reform 30% of the health premium dollar on non-medical items
legislation treat politicians' overblown claims as gospel.” - including advertising, lobbying, profits and huge CEO
D. Himmelstein & S. Woolhandler, NYT, April 9, 2006 salaries." - Patricia Downs Berger, MD, April 21, 2006

4. MASS-CARE & UHCEF invite you to the:
Annual Dr. Benjamin Gill Memorial Awards Dinner
Dante Alighieri Cultural Center
41 Hampshire Street, Cambridge
ten-minute walk from Kendall/MIT
stop on MBTA’s Red Line
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Activists’ Training @ 3:00 PM
Registration @ 5:00 PM
Program @ 5:30 PM
Hot & Cold Hors d'oeuvres - Cash Bar
Silent Auction
Donation: $35
This year’s honorees:
Margaret O’Malley, RN, Massachusetts Nurses Association
Alan Sager, PhD & Deborah Socolar, MPH
Boston University School of Public Health
For more information & reservations,
call MASS-CARE/UHCEF @ 617-723-7001
info@masscare.org - www.masscare.org
MASS-CARE proudly participates in such progressive
coalitions as JwJ in both Western and Eastern
Massachusetts. Thanks to Rand Wilson for this snapshot
of some of the attendees at the April 12th JwJ Health
Care Action Committee meeting in Boston, working to
support the constitutional amendment to make access to
affordable health insurance the right of all Massachusetts
residents and building support for Congressman Conyers’
Medicare for All bill, HR.676.
Jobs with Justice Health Care Action Comm. Universal Health Care Education Fund (UHCEF)
c/o MASS-CARE
Left to right: Charlie Rasmussen, MNA; Dawn Martinez, 8 Beacon Street, Suite 26
BLHG; Peter Knowlton, UE; Ben Day, MASS-CARE; Paul Boston, MA 02108
Cannon, IBT; Sandy Eaton, MASS-CARE ; Rand Wilson, P: 617-723-7001
IUE-CWA; Ann Eldridge-Malone & Maurice Malone, F: 617-723-7002
ADHC; John Horgan, IBEW; Ariana Flores, JwJ; Shawn info@masscare.org
Leblanc, CWA; Timothy Bergeron, CWA; missing: Marc www.masscare.org
Blum, who’s taking the picture.