Introduction: Why the League of Women Voters?
Because the LWV has studied this issue and taken an official position. As a local league, we follow under the umbrella of national positions on various issues of public interest. Health and medicine are fundamental human rights, not partisan talking points.
Health Care Reform: LWV Official Position
Every U.S. resident should have access to affordable, quality health care, including birth control and the privacy to make reproductive choices.
Why it matters
The U.S. health care system should provide a basic level of quality health care at an affordable cost to all U.S. residents. Basic care includes disease prevention, primary care (including prenatal and reproductive health), acute long-term care, mental health care, as well as health promotion and education. Health care policy goals should include the equitable distribution of services and delivery of care, advancement of medical research and technology, and a reasonable total national expenditure level.
What we’re doing
Over the past 20 years, we have lobbied for health care policy solutions, including the Affordable Care Act (ACA), to control costs and ensure a basic level of care for all. Throughout the health care debates of the past few decades, Leagues worked to provide millions of Americans across the country with objective information about the health care system and its significant reforms. This included organizing community education projects, holding public forums and debates, creating and distributing resource materials, and engaging leading policy makers and analysts.
How does universal health coverage work? An International View
Who’s Involved in this?
A number of groups are focusing on reforming health care at the national and state levels. Here are several:
Physicians for a National Health Care Plan** (see below)
Physicians for a National Health Care Plan OREGON
American Association of Family Practitioners
Health Care Reform and LWV Klamath County**
On Wednesday October 6, 2021 from 6:00pm – 8:00pm PT, the League of Women Voters Davis Area will be hosting a virtual Community Forum, “Health Reform & Social Justice: Opportunities for Reducing Inequity and Addressing Health Disparities”. LWV Klamath County will be one of many co-sponsors of this event.
Register at https://lwvdaforum.eventbrite.com
For this event, the League will be hosting an evening with Dr. Susan Rogers, President of Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP). Dr. Rogers’s presentation will include an overview of the U.S. health care system through a social justice lens, followed by a discussion highlighting disparities resulting from our current policies and opportunities to improve inequities through health reform. The forum will conclude with an audience Q&A.
Dr. Rogers is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Rush University. She has recently retired from her hospitalist practice in Chicago at Stroger Hospital of Cook County. She has previously served as co-director of medical student teaching at Stroger and as Medical Director of Near North Health Service Corp, a Chicago FQHC. Most recently, Dr. Rogers spoke at the June California League of Women Voters Annual Convention, providing the presentation: “Health Care: Inequities and Opportunities”.
This forum aims to educate voters about our current healthcare model and how it impacts local care access, affordability, quality and equity. Our guest speaker provides insights into how health reform can improve each of these to optimize community health and wellness. The LWVDA supports the National League healthcare positions in support of an affordable, accessible, quality, and equitable health care system, critical for the health, safety and economic security of all communities. Becoming an informed voter is fundamental to ensuring the engagement needed to affect meaningful reform. The future of our community health and healthcare systems will rely upon votes cast by those with a better understanding of current needs and resources and our opportunities to enact needed change.
To help speakers best address your concerns, questions, and issues, we encourage attendees to please submit them in advance to komalh@lwvdavisarea.org before October 4.
We encourage you to sign up for this virtual forum and hope that you will spread the word to other voters you know. Health and Medicine aren’t partisan issues, but fundamental human rights.