Also featured on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Learn more about medical students for Single-Payer at the Vacuum Project.

Some videos of the protests in support of Wisconsin working people.

Salt Lake City

Heartland Revolution In West Virgina

"Good afternoon, I'm Brian Williams reporting from Washington, where it looks like October 26, 2017, will be a day that truly goes down in history. In a few moments, at a table not far from where I now stand, President Hillary Clinton will sign into law the universal health-care legislation - "Medicare for All," as she calls it - that completes a journey Mrs. Clinton began nearly 25 years ago. Back then, as first lady, her attempt to reform the health-care system proved a fiasco that cost Democrats their hold on power. Who would have thought then - or later, when President Barack Obama's big health reform was overturned by the Supreme Court in a controversial 5 to 4 ruling in 2012 - that today's bipartisan bill would be the result? For some perspective on the twists and turns of history, we're joined by NBC's David Gregory. David, health reform seemed dead in the water in 2012. How did we get from that Supreme Court ruling to today?"

Read Full Entry

From the PNHP Blog:

If I hear "Canadian health care"
by Clark Newhall, MD, JD

Words matter. The insurance companies (as Wendell Potter will attest) have used that to their advantage and have tried to turn "single-payer" and "Medicare For All" into pejoratives, much as Ronald Reagan did with "socialized medicine" while in the pay of the AMA.

But there are really no other words to use and I find that "Medicare For All" and "single-payer" are labels that best describe what I am talking about.

When I encounter opposition to the words, I find that a small amount of education is in order, and usually works. Here is one example. A common response of the uninformed to the word "single-payer" is to mention Canada.

If I hear "Canadian health care" from my listener (as I did on a radio interview at 0200 this morning) then I tell the following story:

I live in Canada in the summertime. My friend there, Red, had to go to the hospital a year or two ago and was hospitalized for five days. It seems like he got every test and x-ray known to God and man while there, in addition to five days of IV medication.

A few days after he got out of the hospital, I saw him walking around town.

"How are you doing, Red?" I said.

"Pretty good", he said, "but I'm pissed off at this hospital bill I got."

I was dumbfounded. "Hospital bill? What are you talking about? You don't have to pay for hospital care in Canada, I thought."

He explained. "Yeah, I had a private room. I'm mad. I didn't know it would cost me 240 bucks. That's outrageous."

I had to agree. Outraged is how I felt too.

When I told this story to 3 complete strangers on a plane recently, apropos of nothing, one said, "If they can do it in Canada, why can't we do it here? The insurance companies are screwing us and have bought off the politicians." The other two nodded in agreement.

Words matter, but they matter most when they are combined with ideas and stories.

Dr. Newhall is a physician and attorney in Salt Lake City, Utah. His website is health-justice.org.

Clark Newhall will be featured in the upcoming these upcoming interviews:

Monday, February 1, 2011, 5 O'Clock Shadow WBAI New York.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 1 am, KOA Denver

Wednesday, February 2, 2011, 7:30 am KPFA Radio

Thursday, February 3, 2011 8:20 am PST KPFK Radio

On Monday U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson in Florida ruled the Obama administration’s healthcare insurance overhaul was unconstitutional. The law will stay in effect while the decision is appealed.

CLARK NEWHALL

Executive director of Health Justice, Newhall is a doctor and a lawyer. He said today: “Just like the government cannot force you to buy a car from GM because there is not enough mass transit, so too Congress cannot force you to buy insurance from Wellpoint when there is not enough health care access. Notably, the Florida judge said that Congress can certainly ‘regulate’ insurance, and he also determined that a government benefit program (Medicaid) is constitutional, but he said that the individual mandate is so integral to the PPACA [last year's major healthcare insurance law] that the entire act is void. In other words, the government cannot say — you MUST buy insurance from a private company.

Read the full release

Our Health Care For All videos with Mike Farrell are back up at http://www.health-justice.org/videos.

The Health Justice Vending Program is coming soon. Supporting a label program will help uninsured famlies in America find quality and affordable health care.

The program will be very simple, managed online, and will allow for recurring subscriptions. Please contact us at info@health-justice.org if you have any questions. Check back soon for more updates!