Mission: The website and our network are dedicated to educating and mobilizing League members to work toward legislation and other reforms that enact the goals of our LWVUS health care position, with a strong focus on expanded and improved Medicare for All (a single-payer system). The materials are varied for different audiences, and they include pointers to resources for those who want to delve more deeply, and/or would like to do programming for local League or community meetings.
For this month, we explore health care in Rural areas, especially what it might mean for hastening fundamental change in health care administration. That is, it is not a description of how health systems are working in a rural setting, but rather a brief round-up of examples where they aren’t working. We want to bring attention to what might be a brief window of opportunity to change directions. For now, the hopeful note in the slogan of National Rural Health Day, “the Power of Rural,” still resonates, especially if the public sector has less competition from the commercial sector and its lobbyists. However, the non-profit financial watchdog organization, Private Equity Stakeholders Project, (PESP) has sounded the alarm that Private Equity is already “descending” on rural health. Their mission is to do the research and also work with communities to bring about change.
The newsletter also shares a couple of pieces from our “mailbag” which continue the theme of greed that seems to be all over the media. This month, it’s big Pharma Greed and unpunished insurance fraud.