Single Payer Moves Ahead
Study consultant selected, Outreach Intensifies
There have been many significant steps towards Universal Single Payer Health Care in Maine during the past six months. We are now closer than ever to achieving health care for all Maine citizens and MPA members will be working harder than ever to make it happen over the next several months.
Health Security Board Receives $227,500; Mathematica to do Study
The Health Security Board has been in the news frequently this spring and summer with a number of exciting announcements. Members may recall the Health Security Board is the body created by the legislation passed in June 2001 to develop a Universal Single Payer Health Care System for Maine.
In May, the Maine State Nurses Association announced a gift of $27,500 from nurses’ organizations in California, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania to help finance a Single Payer study for Maine. By July, the Board had already been approached by over a dozen nationally-recognized health care consulting firms interested in being hired to perform Maine’s Single Payer study; this was an unexpected level of interest and shows how realistic the possibility of Single Payer in Maine is considered nation-wide.
In July, the Health Security Board received a grant of $200,000 from the Maine Health Access Foundation to fund a Single Payer study to assess the feasibility and cost of such a system in Maine. Members of the Maine People’s Alliance had attended every Health Access Foundation public hearing statewide throughout the winter to urge the Foundation to provide this grant and celebrated this victory.
On July 25, the Health Security Board announced that they had selected Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., a national health care consulting firm to conduct Maine’s study. Mathematica has a national reputation for their objectivity, credibility and expertise. The outcome of their study will be a critical step in the Single Payer movement and it is due out by December 1, 2002.
MPA Organizing Fuels Growing Support for Single Payer
As statewide momentum for Single Payer accelerates, organizing at the local level has intensified. MPA’s Health Care Coordinating Committee, led by member and nurse Jay Houghton, has recently hosted two trainings for members in Portland on how to present Single Payer to various citizen groups. The Committee itself has focused on outreach and presentations to labor groups and physicians. Mal Gregory gave a Single Payer presentation training to Penobscot Valley chapter members in Bangor this spring.
Outreach to small businesses has been a strong focus in the last three months. (See article on small business materials on this page). Two trainings (in Portland and Bangor) have occurred to teach active members about the best way to approach local businesses about Single Payer and to get signatures on MPA’s “Small Businesses for Single Payer” petition. Barbara Kates, of Families and Children Together in Bangor spoke at a MPA press conference this summer and highlighted the plight of Maine businesses: “During the past four years our health insurance costs have gone up about 41%. The same is happening for other non-profits and small businesses and that means millions of Maine dollars are going to health insurance increases instead of serving Maine families and increasing Maine’s economy…. We can't allow health insurance profits to affect Maine companies' ability to grow and expand... we need to make a change now.”
Aside from ongoing trainings, members in the three chapters have proved their ability to organize at a number of events since February. Members attended “Emergency Health Care Forums” organized statewide by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) over the winter and voiced their support for Single Payer to various Legislators on the forum panels. Three public hearings were organized by MPA in the Androscoggin Valley area this summer. MPA members, local citizens, regional media and legislative candidates came together in Lewiston, Augusta and Auburn to discuss Singe Payer and hear presentations given by Health Care Coordinating Committee chair Jay Houghton. The hearings resulted in new members, public education, and also produced positive media exposure.
Members also turned out in force to the biggest health care events this summer. On August 21, in Lewiston and Bangor, members attended and spoke at press conferences to announce the success of MPA’s grassroots outreach on Single Payer. For the first time, MPA operated a total of three door-to-door canvasses this summer. The activists who hit the streets day after day in the summer heat were able to knock on over 50,000 doors and speak to about 30,000 Mainers in 150 towns by the time August ended.
“Most people are receptive to the idea of health care reform because they deal with health care on a day-to-day basis and for many families it can be a struggle to afford the insurance premiums and prescription drug prices they are facing,” said Tsega Menelik, Senior Field Manager of the MPA summer canvass from Bangor. In total, the summer’s outreach resulted in almost 4,000 new members, and about as many petition signatures from Maine citizens in different political districts across the state. John Dieffenbacher-Krall, co-director of the Maine People’s Alliance, declared, “Maine People’s Alliance has been going door-to-door advocating a Universal Single Payer Health Care System since 1988. During all the political peaks and lows of interest in this issue, we have heard consistent support for the need to publicly finance health care and make it available to everyone. We hope the candidates running for the Maine Legislature and Governor will listen to what voters have told us and support Single Payer in 2003.”
MPA members are now looking ahead. With Mathematica’s study due back to the Health Security Board by mid-November and a host of new decision-makers entering office around the same time, a summer of intense organizing is sure to pay off. Members will continue to participate in trainings, talk to and enlist the support of local businesses, add names to the list of physicians who support Single Payer, contact their Representatives and Senators, and work to make public the groundswell of public support for Single Payer that this summer’s outreach has demonstrated. We are closer than we have ever been, and it can be felt in the energy and enthusiasm that radiates from every member as our fall meetings and events commence this month.