HCAC Newsletter

What’s Your Legacy?

Are you silent in the face of suffering?  You don’t have to be.  Help petition for our Right to Health Careby clicking HERE.

Sept. 1, The Durango Herald said the leading chronic disease among Colorado children is dental disease.  It’s five times more prevalent than asthma.  The Colorado Universal Health Plan can provide everyone with dental care. 

Does your insurance limit which doctors you can see?  The Colorado Universal Health Plan gives you the freedom to choose your doctor and it covers:

Will Medicare Bankrupt You?

Unlike Medicare, The Colorado Universal Health Plan has no deductibles or co-payments.  One-fourth of people with Medicare spend more than all their assets are worth on health care not covered by Medicare in the last five years of life, according Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers.  Forty-three percent spend more than their assets are worth not including their home.

Lots of volunteers collected from 20,000 to 25,000 Right to Health Care signatures at the Colorado State Fair, but we need more to get it on the ballot.  Come to the HCAC booth at the Sustainable Living Fair in Fort Collins Sept. 14-15.  To volunteer, send [email protected]your name and phone number and we’ll send you entry passes and parking instructions.

Get signatures at the department of motor 
vehicles, library, post office or other public place any time.  We get 12 to 15 signatures an hour at the Loveland Library and Chilsen Recreation Center.

World Support for Right to Health Care

 
Coloradans still die from lack of access to health care, but health care was listed in the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights way back in 1948.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights that Eleanor Roosevelt helped draft in 1948 states in Article 25:

“(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”

The Huffington Post reported, “The Iraqi Constitution was carefully crafted to mandate universal health care in 2005.  Its Article 31 reads: ‘First: Every citizen has the right to health care. …’.”

The World Health Organization reported every country is now party to at least one treaty that recognizes rights related to human health. 

The National Economic and Social Rights Institute reported the Right to Health is also protected in:

• Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
  
  

•  Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
  
  

•  Article 5 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
  
  

•  Articles 12 and 14 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women Article XI (11) of the American Declaration on Rights and Duties of Man
  
  

•  Article 25 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

What You Will Need without

The Power of People Working Together

Fifty years ago August 28, the March on Washington bought more than 200,000 people together in a peaceful demonstration for freedom.  That changed our country forever.  Will you come together to give every Coloradan access health care?

Congress made Labor Day a national holiday in 1894 as another example of how people working together improved our lives forever.

At the height of the Industrial Revolution, people worked 12 hours every day of the week.  Children as young as five toiled in factories, mills and mines earning a fraction of adult wages.  People faced dangerous working conditions and inadequate fresh air, sanitary facilities and breaks. 

We have always dared to dream of a better life and we can do it again. 

Last Chance to Help

Join Health Care for All Colorado at http://www.healthcareforallcolorado.org/membership and endorse health care as a human right by clicking HERE. 

Right to Health Care petitions must be notarized and returned no later than October 23 to get them to the Secretary of State's office in time.  Mail them to the address on the petition or call HCAC Executive Director Donna Smith at 720-256-8373.

United States 46^th among 48 Countries

August 29, The Huffington Post reported that the United States ranked 46^th among 48 countries for health care efficiency.  Even Algeria, China and Iran beat the U.S.

The unifying factor in the other 46 health care systems seems to be a governmental universal health care system. 

Vermont became the first state to lay groundwork for single-payer health care.  In 2011, Democratic Governor Peter Shumlin signed a bill to establish universal coverage for everyone in that state.

If the state secures one key federal waiver related to exchanges, it could have universal coverage in 2014.  

What Coloradans Face

The Denver Post reported that “Colorado hospital retail prices for common surgeries and treatments often vary from one another by 400 or 500 percent, and the most egregious rates are eight to 10 times what Medicare pays, according to new federal data.” 

For example, the Medical Center of Aurora charged $59,000 to treat pneumonia and the University of Colorado Hospital charged $49,000.

About 400,000 Coloradans will remain uninsured even after the state’s health insurance exchange is working.  The Affordable Care Act is only the start of what we need to protect public health.

We need single-payer, public insurance now.  Without The Colorado Universal Health Plan, some of us won’t live to see Medicare.

ALEC Threatens Obamacare

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) turned 40 in August.  ALEC produced The State Legislators Guide to Repealing Obamacare. 

Some of its most extreme attacks have hit people in Missouri.  ALEC legislation there prohibits any state employee from doing anything to implement the Affordable Care Act.  Missouri legislators have also blocked groups from helping people to even understand the law and their choices in coverage.  

Most states have also introduced ALEC legislation called the Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act.  It works against the Affordable Care Act and protects for profit health insurance even though federal law supersedes state law.

ALEC claims nearly 2,000 state legislators as members.  A partial list of Colorado politicians connected with ALEC is available by clicking HERE.