Events to target health care reform
Experts on single-payer system to speak in Troy tonight; rally set May 6
Cathleen F. Crowley
Albany Times Union
First published: Thursday, May 1, 2008
Single-payer health care is the topic of two upcoming events in the Capital Region.
Tonight, the Hudson-Mohawk May Day Committee will mark International Workers Day at Troy’s Prospect Park. The theme of the event is single-payer health care, a system where the government is the main payer for health costs, also called Medicare for all.
The speakers are: Martha Livingston, associate professor at SUNY Old Westbury, who gives courses on American health care and comparative health care systems and has lectured widely on health care reform; and Dr. Andy Coates, secretary of the local chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program and a local activist for peace and health care reform.
The event is free and open to the public and runs from 5 to 9 p.m., rain or shine. Prospect Park is on Congress Street just east of Troy.
May Day is the International Workers’ Holiday celebrated in most industrial countries in the world. It began in the U.S. in the 19th century, growing out of the struggle for the eight-hour work day and the Chicago Haymarket Massacre in 1886.
Another local event takes place Tuesday, May 6, when advocates meet with state legislators to seek support for the Federal Single Payer/Medicare For All Bill. In addition to meeting with legislators, the Capital District Alliance for Universal Health Care, New Yorkers for Single Payer Universal Health Care and Hunger Action Network of New York State will sponsor citizen briefings on the bill and a single-payer health care rally.
Briefings begin at 9:40 a.m. at Emmanuel Baptist Church, 275 State St., Albany. Single-payer experts representing citizen and social actions groups, as well as physicians, nurses, labor, business and health care professionals, will provide information. A rally follows at noon on the west steps of the Capitol facing the park. Supporters of a federal bill by health care reform advocates and patients who had serious problems with the current health care system will speak.