Third Saturday Seminar 2017-2018
Return of the Elders, Unleash your Wisdom
Session 1
“Single Payer, What’s true, What’s not – Is now the time?”
Saturday, 16 September 2017 9:30AM to Noon
Room B-102, Lone Star College – Montgomery
3200 College Park Drive – Conroe, TX – 77384 – 936.273.7000
This is the first Session of the Third Saturday Seminar for the 2017-18 Academic Year.
Our subject may referred to as Single Payer, Medicare for All or Universal Health Care, etc.
Our Speaker will be Christine Adams, PhD from “Health Care for All Texans” (HCFAT) http://www.hcfat.org/
Christine Adams, Ph.D.* is a psychologist in private practice in Houston, TX. She works with children, adolescents, adults, couples and families. She has had a long standing interest in a single-payer national health program having been either a provider or patient in almost every type of health care system in the United States. Dr. Adams joined Health Care for All – Texas in 2007 and has held several officer/Board positions within the organization over the years. Her advocacy efforts include many presentations on single-payer to both laypeople and professionals, producing informative single-payer videos available on YouTube and co-developing a single-payer calculator to help people estimate their costs under a single-payer national health program which is available on the Health Care for All – Texas website at hcfat.org.
*Correction: In a previous emailing I mistakenly identified Dr. Adams as an MD. As you can now see, she is a Ph.D. and a practicing psychologist with extensive professional experience and I know her to be very knowledgeable and effective in presenting the case for a Single Payer Healthcare. Please accept My sincere apologies.
I have long been a proponent of single payer healthcare (and affordable higher education) as essential for restoring the long term strength of our nation.
Surprisingly (I think), with the Republicans’ AHCA on the rocks, the chances of Single Payer may be better than ever before. For instance:
- Donald Trump, in a phone call, complemented the President of Australia on the excellence of the Aussie’s Healthcare system. (Is it possible he is trying to nudge the Congress in that direction?) To my thinking, only a single payer health care system could provide the better care for lower cost that Trump promised during his campaign.Trump has recently shown that he will go to the Democrats when he can’t get what he wants from the Republicans (The Debt Ceiling extension) This is a big stretch, but Trump would dearly love to take credit for a health program that works.
- Charles Krauthammer, MD of Fox News has been predicting for years Single Payer will be the eventual solution.
- Bernie Sanders finally came out of hiding and is again promoting a single payer health care system.
“Look, I have no illusions that under a Republican Senate and a very right-wing House and an extremely right-wing president of the United States, that suddenly we’re going to see a Medicare-for-all, single-payer passed,” he said recently, sitting in his Senate office. “You’re not going to see it. That’s obvious.”
The point of the bill, Sanders says, is to force a conversation: “Excuse me: why is the United States the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people? Why are we spending far, far more per capita on health care than any other nation? Why do we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs?”
- More and more Democratic members of Congress are finding in town meetings their constituents are very much interested in Single Payer.
Health Care for All – Texas (founded in 2002) is a nonprofit advocacy organization and the Texas Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program . It’s mission is to educate the public on how a single payer national healthcare system would provide affordable, comprehensive health care to all of us. We believe that healthcare is a public good not a commodity. It should not be something that some can have others can’t. The vision of Health Care for All – Texas is to have a healthcare system based on six principles: universality, accessibility, affordability, accountability, comprehensiveness and justice. We agree with the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights which holds that every human being has the right to health care based on those same principles. Health Care for All – Texas is part of a national movement that believes single payer is both the best
Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) is an advocacy organization of some 20,000 American physicians, medical students, and health professionals co-founded in 1987 by David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler that supports a single-payer (Canadian-style) system of universal national health insurance.[1]
The group is best known for its influential proposals for national health insurance, which have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine[2] and JAMA.[3]
The Houston Chapter of Health Care for All – Texas meets the 2nd Thursday of every month from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM in the Jones Building, 2nd floor of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 5501 Main Street, 77004.
For more information on single payer and Health Care for All – Texas go to www.healthcareforalltexas.org or email them at info@hcfat.org. We can be contacted by mail at P.O. Box 421704, Houston, TX 77242 and by phone at 713-570-6242.
Dr. Adams, will discuss the mechanics of how a single-payer could work to give us great benefits at a lower cost than most of us have now. She will give a brief overview of three different models for national health programs
Please write down any questions you have ahead of time for Dr. Adams to read during the Current Events time and address during her presentation.
There is a single payer calculator that is based on Prof. Gerald Friedman’s financing formula for HR676 and it will give the annual “premium” and then an opportunity to compare cost and benefits with HR 676 and what they have now. The link to the calculator is top and center on this page. http://www.hcfat.org/index.html
She suggests these links to check out in advance
Funding a National Single-Payer System by Gerald Feiedman
from Dollars & Sense March/April 2012 (edited with graphics) PDF download
Funding HR 676: The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act
white paper with full text and annotations PDF download
YouTube videos by Dr. Adam’s young associates to pitch the message in humorous but informative ways
All for Single-Payer (parody of Beyoncé’s “All the Single Ladies”)
Other References
The fight over healthcare is leading some to consider something radical
Bob Bryan Jun. 17, 2017
Bernie Sanders Knows His Medicare-For-All Bill Won’t Pass. That’s Not The Point
Scott Detrow August 11, 20175:00 AM
Comparison: U.S. House Bill 676 Single-Payer Health Care, Improved Medicare for All. … and …
the Health Security Act: U.S. Senate Bill 915 / U.S. House Bill 1200 50 or more plans; 50 or more payers
Sign Up to be notified when the campaign starts to get strong support from the U.S. Congress for universal health care, Medicare for All.
As usual, our world is still in “interesting times” We will start the session with Current Events
Our Current Events segment will be mostly an open discussion of the wild events that continue since the newly sworn President Trump took up residence in the White House. Here are some ideas …
President Donald J. Trump will have been in office for 239 days by Saturday. There are 416 days to the next election. The “Russia” investigation seems to continue to gain traction. Mueller goes deeper and deeper following trails. (Today we are hearing, “Do not lie to the investigators about the President!”)
Hurricane Harvey: Do you have a story?
Tracking MOSUL –On 9 July 2017, the Iraqi Prime Minister arrived in Mosul to announce the victory over ISIL, and an official declaration of victory was proclaimed on 10 July.[78][9][10][79] However, heavy clashes continued in the Old City for almost another 2 weeks.[80][13] It was estimated that removing the explosives from Mosul and repairing the city over the next 5 years would require USD 50 billion (2017 USD),[81] while Mosul’s Old City alone would cost about USD 1 billion to [10]
Russia Investigation: Robert Mueller’s Russia Investigation Targets Donald Trump Inner Circle | The Last Word | MSNBC Published on Sep 8, 2017
A new report says Robert Mueller wants to interview at least 6 current and former White House aides including a Trump confidant in the investigation into possible campaign collusion with Russia. Ali Velshi discusses with Betsy Woodruff & Jill Wine-Banks.
Another collision at Sea can ruin the Navy’s whole day! “The USS John S. McCain’s Crash Only Seems Familiar”
Remember we talked about the John S. McCain in June? Well, the whole Pacific fleet took the day of to contemplate what’s happening and why. (“WTF Over”)
North Korea
UN Documents for DPRK (North Korea): Security Council Resolutions
UN Security Council Resolution S/RES/2371 , 5 August 2017 This resolution condemned the 3 and 28 July ballistic missile launches.
You can find a list of recent sanctions here:
Russian Elections: Moscow council. (The Guardian)
Liberal anti-Putin coalition causes upset in Moscow council elections. United Democrats triumph in central seats in Russian capital, including the one where the president cast his vote. A coalition of liberal opposition parties has won a series of victories in local council elections in central Moscow, beating candidates from Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party.
The United Democrats movement took 11 out of 12 council seats in the Tverskaya district, a wealthy neighbourhood adjacent to the Kremlin. It also secured all 12 seats in the Gagarinsky district, where Putin cast his vote on Sunday. The opposition likewise upset the odds to triumph in a dozen other districts, the vast majority of them in the heart of the Russian capital.
“We took the centre!” Maxim Katz, the opposition’s campaign manager, wrote on Twitter.
And whatever comes up … You can always get a quick Current Events briefing here
Bring your insights and your concerns to Third Saturday Seminar on Saturday and we will Share.
LSC-Montgomery
3200 College Park Drive, Conroe, TX 77384
ALL- Montgomery Links:
Academy for Lifelong Learning: LSC-Montgomery
Registration
Download a registration form and submit it to ALL:
· In person: LSC-Montgomery (3200 College Park Dr., Conroe, TX 77384), Continuing Education/ALL Office Building E (Room 205)
· Phone: 936.273.7446
Course Description: Third Saturday Seminars – Fall 2017- 3 Sessions
To refer to an ancient Chinese saying, “our world is in interesting times” and individual citizens are assaulted with a blinding array of propaganda from every conceivable source. The Third Saturday Seminar is about demystification of what is going on around us. Time will also be spent on current events.
Meets 9/16, 10/21, and 11/18 in B-102.
14972 Sa 9/16-11/18 9:30 a.m.-12 p.m. B 102 Gibby
Schedule for other ALL Courses
Downloadable Course book PDF
Montgomery Courses start on page 36.
You can attend ALL courses on all the other campuses by registering for global membership ($55).
ALL Website: http://www.lonestar.edu/all-montgomery.htm
Registration Form
“Some part of our being knows this (the universe) is where we came from. We long to return. And we can. Because the cosmos is also within us; We’re made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” Carl Sagan