PNHPWW August16 Meeting - Monthly Report

Introductions– Sherry Weinberg, President, PNHPWW – 17 attending
Coordinator’s Report– David McLanahan, Coordinator, PNHPWW

This has been a very active period as you can see from the list of past events. Notable were the several Congressional Representatives’ Town Halls where Medicare for All supporters carried signs, passed out leaflets and asked questions. There were many showings of “Now is the Time.” Meeting with Reps Smith and DelBene are planned before the end of August. Note the large rally on Saturday, August 19, in Olympia listed below.
In this time after the Republicans health care plans have been defeated, there is an opening for taking the offense on Improved Medicare for All. Bernie Sanders will likely introduce his single payer bill in the Senate in September. This movement forward has provoked attacks from centrist Democrats counseling that now is not the time for transformational change.

The arguments between the incremental and single payer now approaches are summarized very nicely by Don McCanne in is August 17 Quote of the Day with pieces by Woolhandler and Himmelstein and Ida Hellander. Also, well worth reading is Margaret Flowers’ article on this debate.Please read - we need to understand these arguments that will be very much in the daily conversations of progressive health care reform advocates.
Past Events:
July 16 - Quilicene, WA, -Now is the Time” film screeningsponsored by Whole WA
July 18 - United for SinglePayer meeting -discussed Town Hall Meeting actions.
July 22 - Congressional District 8 Town Hall event with Pramila Jayapal-invited by local CD8 constituents to speak in place of Rep.Reichert, who declined to hold a Town Hall.
July 23 - Port Townsend, WA-Now is the Time”screening -sponsored by Whole WA
July 24–Millions March for Medicare- Jackson Federal Building. Charles Heaney and David McLanahan spoke for PNHPWW -Seevideo.
July 30 - Arlington, WA -Now is the Time” screening,Medicare Birthday Celebration and Fundraisersponsored by Whole WA;
August 6 - Seattle–Now is the Time” film screeningHouse party and Fundraisersponsored by Whole WA, 7pm. Charles Heaney and Simran Mand spoke for PNHPWW
August 8– HCHR-WA meeting- Folders containing thetoolkit for August Congressional recesswere passed out. The information, much of it about Medicare for All is very useful forlobbying legislators and informing the generalpublic.Toolkitand individualcomponentscan be downloaded here. Sherry Weinberg explained the WHST, using a very nice slideshow, and led the discussion. The slideshow may be downloaded from a link in the left-hand column on thepnhpwesternwashington.orgweb site.
August 8 - Vashon -“Now is the Time” film screeningat Vashon Theatre, sponsored by PNHPWW, NeighborCare, and Backbone Campaign. Betty Capehart spokefor PNHPWW
August 8 - Port Angeles - Derek Kilmer Town Hall
August 12 -Tukwila, WA -Adam Smith Town Hall
August 12 – Vancouver, WA,Cascade Park Community Library -“Now is the Time” film screening-sponsored by Whole WA
August 17 – Rally and Meeting at Sens. Murray and Cantwell’s offices,Jackson Federal Building, Seattle – sponsored by North Seattle Indivisible.
Future Events:
August 19 - Whole Washington rally for single payer in Olympia, Capital Building steps, 11am - 2pm-Seth Armstrong will speak for PNHPWW and we will table.
August 22 - United for SinglePayer meeting, 7:00pm– Swedish Medical Center/Cherry Hill, James SECC
September 20 - PNHPWW Monthly Meeting -7:30pm, Swedish Medical Center/Cherry Hill, SECC Room – program TBA

Discussion on Plans for aCandidate Forum on Health Care in October

Among those attending were members of PNHPWW, HCFA-WA, Whole Washington, United for Single Payer, WA Protect Our Patients and Project Access NW. There was discussion about whether a forum for candidates for Mayor, City Council, and state LD’s would be productive, as though these local electeds do have to deal with local health issues, there isn’t much they can actually do to move the ball towards national or state single payer plans which is our main focus. There was consensus that even with a lot of work, we might not be able to attract a large enough audience, publicity, etc., to warrant our time and effort now.

Many felt that a better use of our time and resources would be to continue with supporting local health care reform events, such as we have done recently, and to begin plans for our spring PNHPWW Annual Public Meeting, where we can focus on a hot topic such as the incremental/single-payer-now debate, and finding well-known speakers that would attract a large audience.

Meanwhile, we will be contacting the League of Women Voters to see if they would be interested in holding a candidate forum focused on the issue of health care, that we could co-sponsor.