On January 16, HCFA-WA took to the Capitol steps in support of single payer healthcare. Senator David Frockt introduced our bill, SB5701, to the Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee, and many people offered testimony in support of a single payer system. Attendees who signed in for the hearing were 59 pro, 4 against.

"Healthcare would be privately delivered but publicly financed through the Washington Health Security Trust...health professionals and patients would make the medical decisions, not an insurance company." 

In response to the recent school-bus driver's strike in Seattle, our Outreach Committee co-chair Ruth Knagenhjelm wrote to the Seattle Times to offer a complete solution: universal healthcare. The entirety of her letter is below.

Senator Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All Bill (S 1804) 

After many months of waiting, Sen. Sanders finally filed his bill “Medicare for All Act of 2017” on September 13. The bill has certainly led to an avalanche of commentary about what it would do, how likely (or unlikely) it is to become law, how to pay for it, and what its effect on the politics of the Democratic Party will be. This article is a summary of the bill, its strengths and weaknesses as seen through the filter of single-payer activists, and how it could be financed. 

This letter by Roger Ledbetter of Snoqualmie appeared in the Bothell Reporter on September 29th. In it, he illustrates the true cost of privatized medicine: preventable loss of life, high infant mortality rates for a developed country, and your premiums funding your insurance company's future denials. 

In a September 28th letter to the Seattle Times, Health Care for All Washington president Marcia Stedman defines one facet of the many economic benefits to universal healthcare: lower prices for the consumer when businesses aren't burdened with the costs of providing healthcare to their employees.

Save the date! - Nov. 4^th, 2017 – HCFA-WA Annual Membership Meeting - 1:00-4:00 p.m.  Registration opens at 12:30 p.m.  Horizon House, 900 University Ave., Seattle, WA.  More details soon.

Our group shared current personal stories about health care access difficulties with the ACA and pointed out the superiority of a system as outlined in HR 676, the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act. Casey noted that 80% of his workload concerns health care, and that they support Medicare for All. 

HCFA-WA’s primary mission is to achieve state-based universal health care, but we are also a founding member organization of the Health Care is a Human Right (HCHR) Campaign. As such, we participated in recent meetings with Staff members of Washington State’s two Senators, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray. Our “ask” for the Senators was first, do no harm to the existing ACA, Medicaid, or Medicare programs, and, second, do everything possible to advocate with their colleagues in both houses of Congress for true health care reform.

A group of professionals will discuss costs, savings, and bills in the state legislature. August 24, 2017, Thursday evening 7–8 p.m. Open to all!