“A new health care system that provides universal access and is affordable and efficient will be difficult to achieve. The private insurers and all the other businesses that profit from the current commercial system will resist it. Major reform will need wide public support, which in turn will rely on advocacy by the medical profession. But I believe that reform will nevertheless be eventually enacted because it meets a widely shared and growing public desire for more fairness in an American society pervaded by inequality in access to good health care and many other social benefits.

“Physicians have a unique power to reshape the medical care system. They are what makes it work and are best qualified to use and evaluate its resources. But if they never unite to press for major reform, the future of health care in the United States will indeed be bleak. We will end up either with a system controlled by blind market forces or with a system entangled in complicated and intrusive government regulations. In either case it would be impossible to practice good patient-centered medicine, and the quality and effectiveness of our health care system would sink even lower among the ranks of developed countries. It is up to the medical profession to see that this does not happen. From “Physicians and Politics” by Arnold S. Relman, M.D., in JAMA Internal Medicine, June 2, 2014.

Dr. Arnold S. Relman, professor emeritus of medicine and social medicine at Harvard Medical School, and past editor-in-chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, died on June 17, 2014. He was 91.

April 2011

Mad As Hell Doctors Promote Single Payer Health Care on Oregon Tour in April                       Map

The Oregon Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) and Mad As Hell Doctors (MAHD) will follow up on their landmark 2009 national tour and 2010 California tour with spirited rallies in western Oregon counties during February and March.  Their program will feature music by local musicians and the audience (singing); documentary videos by Paul Hochfeld M.D.; testimony by physicians and nurses; and “Mad As Heck Minutes” by audience members on screen.

Pendleton   Monday Apr 25 Community Room, City Hall 6:30-8 p.m., 500 SW Emigrant  Contact: Frank Erickson MD   dr_erickson@mac.com   Map

La Grande   Tuesday Apr 26 Grande Ronde Hospital Mt. Emily Room, 7-8:30 p.m.,900 Sunset Drive  Contact: Bill Whitaker   Cell  541-805-5681  wwhitak@boisestate.edu   Map

Baker City  Wednesday Apr 27 Baker City Library, 6:30-8:00 p.m.Contact: Marilyn Dudek  clm_marilyn@yahoo.com 541-523-4421  Map

Bend  Thursday Apr 28 the First United Methodist Church, 680 NW Bond St, 7-8:30 p.m.,  Contact: David Stranahan   david.stranahan@q.com    Map

Madras   Friday Apr 29 Rodriguez Annex at the Jefferson County Library, 134 SE “E” St., 6:30-8:00 p.m. Contact: Beth Ann Beamer  BBeamer@mvhd.org   Map

The Dalles   Saturday Apr 30The Dalles Civic Center 7-8:30 p.m. Contact: Jesse Papac  jpapac@gmail.com    Map

Hood River  Sunday May 1 Riverside Community Church   7-8:30 p.m. Contact: Jesse Papac  jpapac@gmail.com  Map

PNHP is a group of physicians, nurses, ancillary health providers, and other concerned citizens advocating for an improved and expanded Medicare program to provide financially sustainable universal health coverage for all Americans. In September 2009, PNHP doctors traveled 6,000 miles through America’s heartland from Portland, OR, to Washington, D.C., stopping at over 40 venues in 17 states. After appearances on the Ed Schultz Show (MSNBC), Keith Olberman (MSNBC), Democracy Now! and interviews on dozens of other media outlets, the group is continuing its unique approach and activist flair to advocate for Single Risk Pool, Improved Medicare-for-All.

PNHP contends that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P-PACA) does too little to protect the health and livelihood of patients and their families. P-PACA serves to further entrench the current medical-industrial complex with an unsustainable cost spiral within our health care system. PNHP further contends that while the Oregon Health Policy Board, a result of House Bill 2009, has proposed critical improvements in Oregon’s health care system, these improvements will be affordable only under a Single Risk Pool, Improved Medicare-for-All plan.

More information is available at http://www.pnhp.org/states/oregon and www.madashelldoctors.com.  You can also interact with 12,000 friends on www.facebook.com/MadDrs.

For counter-arguments to critics please go to Tool Kit

Michael Huntington MD      Physicians for a National Health Program
mchuntington@comcast P.O. Box 1824, Corvallis, OR 97339

Members present: Mike Murphy, Peter Mahr, Steve Weiss, Sam Metz, Jim Scott and Richard Bruno.

I. Updates

1. State of Oregon Single Payer Bill: The subcommittee of the Jobs with Justice Health care Committee has been working hard on finishing up the final draft of a single payer bill for the state that will be introduced by Rep. Michael Dembrow.  Kris Alman, who has been the main PNHP Portland representative to the sub committee was not present and has announced that she will need to take a break from working on the Oregon single payer bill for now.  We decided that since the writing of the bill is almost finished PNHP Portland will await the final draft and help strategize with Peter Shapiro from Jobs with Justice on how best to roll out the bill and position it for passage.

Action: prior to the next PNHP meeting Sam Metz will talk with Peter Shapiro to begin strategizing on the roll out of the Oregon Single Payer bill.

2. Single Payer Forum: Sam Metz has been attending the planning meetings. The date is set: January 29^th, a Saturday from 9-4. It will be held at the Presbyterian Church in NE Portland.  They are focusing on connecting with “sponsoring” individuals and groups who will help support the conference and in return have space at the conference for tabling etc.  The format is not yet determined.  They really need help with this.

Richard Bruno indicated that the OHSU PNHP group can add members to the planning and advertising for the SP forum.

Action: Richard Bruno and Sam Metz will discuss how OHSU PNHP can help plan for this event.

3. Speaking Engagements: Sam Metz and Paul Gorman will address the league of Women Voters annual meeting in December.  Please contact Sam or Paul if you need speakers for other groups or events.

4. OHSU PNHP Chapter: Richard Bruno reported on his summer activities and a recent AMSA conference he attended where he was instrumental in organizing a sub group on Single payer.  Their chapter had their first meeting and they have recruited some new students.  They plan to help testify and advocate for the state of Oregon single payer bill when it is introduced. They can also help organize the Single Payer Conference in January.  3 students from OHSU plan to attend the PNHP national meeting next month.  They are also hoping to do more education on campus in order to connect with dental, nursing and PA schools.

5. Mad as hell Doctors Tour: we have been getting up beat reports from the MAHD’s.  They have been holding many rallies and events across CA.  Please visit their web site madashelldoctors.com to donate.

III. New Items

1. Resolution before City Council in Portland to end corporate personhood. We decided as a group not to endorse the resolution solely because we do not have enough energy and volunteers to address another action item.  We encourage PNHP members to check out the resolution and the sponsoring group called Change Congress.

2. PNHP national Meeting: 3 OHSU students plan to attend and I believe Paul Gorman. More info on the PNHP web site.

3. No Cuts to Social Security and Medicare: Steve Weiss wanted to know if PNHP had joined the “no cuts to SS and Medicare” campaign. Richard Bruno informed us that PNHP national had worked on this campaign this summer.

IV. Next Meeting:

THIS WILL BE A CHANGE DUE TO THE PNHP NATIONAL MEETING. NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD THE SECOND TUESDAY NOVEMBER 9^TH AT ILR AT 8 PM.