Resources

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Policy

National

https://www.sandersinstitute.com/

State

An interactive map of Delaware County districts

Fair Districts PA, How to Track a Bill (video)

Writing tools.

What is an Op-Ed?
An Op-ed is a strong and informed opinion column about a specific topic or subject. An
op-ed can have a targeted audience or can be written for the general public. Op-eds are
usually written by organizations, activists, experts, opinion leaders, or private citizens.
How to write an OP-ED

Education.

The education law center has written a thoughtful analysis of the current Charter School bill in the Pennsylvania legislature, BH-97:
Inadequate-Charter-School-Reform

Environment.

This tool allows you to check your area (or any part of the country) for various environmental factors. https://ejscreen.epa.gov/mapper/

Healthcare.

Talking points: What is Single Payer?
This explanation is from the PNHP physicians organization.  http://www.pnhp.org/nhi

Single-payer national health insurance, also known as “Medicare for all,” is a system in which a single public or quasi-public agency organizes health care financing, but the delivery of care remains largely in private hands. Under a single-payer system, all residents of the U.S. would be covered for all medically necessary services, including doctor, hospital, preventive, long-term care, mental health, reproductive health care, dental, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs.

The program would be funded by the savings obtained from replacing today’s inefficient, profit-oriented, multiple insurance payers with a single streamlined, nonprofit, public payer, and by modest new taxes based on ability to pay. Premiums would disappear; 95 percent of all households would save money. Patients would no longer face financial barriers to care such as co-pays and deductibles, and would regain free choice of doctor and hospital. Doctors would regain autonomy over patient care.

The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, H.R. 676, based on PNHP’s AJPH-published Physicians’ Proposal, would establish an American single-payer health insurance system.

Another good explanation of single-payer systems from Mother Jones

Single-payer health coverage is back in the news these days. But what is it, anyway? Here’s a very brief primer on the five basic forms of health insurance:

  • Socialist: The government owns the hospitals and directly employs the doctors. Britain’s NHS is the best known example. In the United States, VA healthcare works on this model.
  • Single-payer: Doctors and hospitals are mostly private entities, but are paid exclusively by the government. Canada is single-payer, with each province acting as the sole source of payment to doctors and hospitals. In the US, Medicaid and traditional Medicare are single-payer.
  • Multi-payer: Same as single-payer, but doctors and hospitals are paid by multiple sources: the government, regulated sickness funds, regulated insurers, etc. There’s a continuum in multi-payer systems, from those that are almost single payer (France) to those where other payers play larger roles (Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, etc.). This is the most common form of universal health care, and its advantage over single-payer is that it offers a little more flexibility in coverage. In the US, Medicare Advantage is basically multi-payer.
  • Subsidized private: People are required to be covered by private insurance, but the government provides subsidies to make coverage affordable. Switzerland uses this system. In the US, this is the Obamacare model.
  • Private: In the rich world, this is used only in the United States. Employer health care in America is essentially entirely private, although government is involved indirectly via the tax code, which allows employees to receive health coverage free of taxes.

All of these except the last are universal health care systems. They differ only in how they deliver services and pay for them, and they can all work well. France, often cited as the best health care system in the world, is technically multi-payer, but really only a hair’s breadth away from single payer. In practice, this is a semantic distinction for most of us, since there’s usually little difference between universal single-payer and universal multi-payer. Because of that, in America we tend to refer to all universal systems as single-payer.

None of these systems cover literally every dime of health care coverage. Canada, for example, is single-payer but doesn’t cover all prescription drugs. Different provinces have different rules. In most countries, it’s possible to purchase supplementary insurance to cover the gaps in the national system, something that’s necessary because they all have various copays and exceptions:

You can put all this together to get a single number that represents how generous a national health care system is. For example, Switzerland covers about 65 percent of all medical costs. Canada covers about 70 percent. France covers about 78 percent. Medicare in the US covers about 80 percent. Denmark and Germany are the most generous, covering about 84 percent.

PA TOGETHER RESOURCE LINKS:

Politics

Selman Design
Selman Design

Pennyslvania Senate Alternate Contacts

Sen. Robert Casey (D)
Chris Friese
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow
chris_friese@casey.senate.gov
202-224-6324
Gillian Mueller
Senior Policy Adviser
gillian_mueller@casey.senate.gov
202-224-6324
Sara Maskornick
Senior Policy Adviser
sara_mabry@casey.senate.gov
202-224-6324

Sen. Patrick Toomey (R)
Theo Merkel
Legislative Assistant
theodore_merkel@toomey.senate.gov
202-224-4254

Upper Darby Town Council

Town Council Meeting Location: