MichUHCAN Conference
Saturday, September 21, 2002
a MichUHCAN conference featuring
Nick Unger, the membership director for UNITE and
State Senator Alma Wheeler-Smith, David Bonior's selection for Lieutenant Governor
It will be at the Oak Park Community Center
14300 Oak Park Boulevard
(9-1/2 Mile between Coolidge and Greenfield, closer to Coolidge)
from 10:00 AM to 12:00 Noon.
Refreshments will be provided.
Participation is free.
Donations to defray the room rental and so forth will be gratefully accepted.
Meetings Change
Membership and planning meetings will still be held at the First United Methodist Church of Berkley. Watch this space and/or sign up for our snail mail newsletter by writing to the address above for the schedule.
Get Prescription Drugs at Canadian Prices
December 7, 2000It is now possible for American (U. S.) doctors to facilitate for their patients the purchase of cheaper drugs from Canada. This can be done by way of the internet. The article explaining this has been posted on the web by the Common Dreams Newscenter. Click here to read it.
The web site has been set up by the United Health Alliance of Bennington, Vermont. The specific rules and legalities are explained on the web site.
Vermont is the state represented in Congress by Bernie Sanders, who was instrumental in setting up the "Bus to Canada" program in which seniors struggling with absurdly high American drug prices could take advantage of the fact that they live close to the Canadian border. This is the virtual bus that saves on fuel and does not care if you live a thousand miles from the border.
There is a possibility that the web site or the Canadian purchasing and shipping service that makes it work will be overloaded. The demand may well be greater than the United Health Alliance has anticipated.
Subsidized Health Insurance for Children
Governor Engler may not be happy to hear about it, but the federal government has set up a web site (Insure Kids Now) to help low-income parents sign up for subsidized health insurance for their children. The insurance can be free or low-cost, depending on where the parent fits into their income tables. Engler is one of those governors, similar to George Bush as governor of Texas, who does not like to tell parents about this service, as it might unbalance his precious state budget. But if you qualify, it is your right to have this health insurance coverage for your children. If this program might benefit your family, please click here to take a look at what it offers.
What is MichUHCAN?
MichUHCAN is part of a nationwide grassroots organization which advocates a national health care system. That system, commonly called a "single payer" system, is utilized in every industrialized country except the United States.
The health care crisis in America is real and getting worse, not better. It is characterized by rapidly rising costs, domination by for-profit HMOs and upwards of 60 million uninsured and underinsured people. More and more frequently hospitals and other health care facilities are driven by bottom line dollar profits rather than offering the most appropriate patient care.
Added to this is the tendency on the part of politicians, national and local, to finance tax cuts for the well-to-do by reducing funding for Medicare and Medicaid.
Our web site will try to keep you informed on what is happening and what should be happening. We invite your participation. Write your Congressperson, come to a meeting, agitate for just health care in your union, your church, or your neighborhood - do something. We think that universal single-payer health insurance is more fair and more secure than the failing patchwork of competing schemes we have today.
What's on this Web Site:
This, of course, is the Home Page.
Politics 2000
tells you about national UHCAN's "U2K Campaign," the Labor Party's "Just Health Care" proposal, and our local organizing efforts relating to both. We want to have an impact on the year 2000 election. We also expect the movement for universal health care will need to stay organized for further efforts after the votes are counted. This section has articles on candidates' positions on health care, on H. R. 1200 (the bill for a national health plan currently before the Congress), on the "MichiCare" bill proposed in the Michigan legislature, and more. We have good advice on how to write a letter to the editor and a list of addresses of some local publications to which you may want to write.
News/Comment
is pretty much self-explanatory. The news is focused on local events in Michigan and especially the Detroit area. Comments are partly written by our own members, with selected items from the national press. There are also a number of cartoons on the subject of health care.
Publications
brings you the on-line versions of some flyers and pamphlets you might find on our literature tables. Please feel free to print these out on your printer, copy them, distribute them, and so on. In addition, you might consider purchasing the book, Universal Health Care, from our
On-Line Bookstore (in association with Amazon.com).
Organization
has information about our schedule of meetings and how to become a member of MichUHCAN. Members of our Steering Committee are listed along with their responsibilities (Chair, U2K Organizing, Speaker's Bureau, Membership, Newsletter, E-mail Newsletter, Web Site, and so on) and the necessary contact information, including e-mail addresses in most cases. If your organization needs a speaker on the subject of universal health care, check with us.
Links
covers links to other organizations trying to reform health care and web sites that have relevant information. There are also links to selected government sites which provide web site addresses and e-mail information for national and state legislators.
