Internal Lobby Day Sharpens our Understanding of the Public Healthcare Advocate

Barbara White

On July 9th, the Campaign Team led 33 PPF-PA members and friends in a deep dive into the nature and importance of a Public Healthcare Advocate (PHA) for Pennsylvania.  Achieving legislation to create this statewide office is one of our two medium-term campaigns. PPF-PA conducts this campaign to organize our communities, develop leaders and hold power-holders accountable to our policy vision.

Nijme started off with background on how PPF-PA decided on this goal.  Her recent internal Facebook post explains:

Four years ago around this time we won the first ever public hearing on rising insurance premiums. Through a concerted campaign targeting the PA Insurance Department, we pressured using a petition, meetings with officials, call-in days, partner letters and other tactics.

Then the following year, we won not just one hearing, but statewide Town Halls as part of the rate review process. Across the state we received local press about how residents were calling for universal healthcare.

We learned that there is no one at the state level who fights for our healthcare rights, but insurance companies, hospital systems and other healthcare companies have lobbyists who have our state agencies on speed dial.

These successful campaigns which brought about more transparency, accountability and participation in the rate review process helped us sharpen our focus on building the Nonviolent Medicaid Army and the fight for a Public Healthcare Advocate!

Then PPF-PA Legislative Coordinator, Barbara White, explained how we’ve built momentum in the past year through our legislative visits.  HRC members have had 25 legislative visits, gaining full support or openness to the PHA from most Democrats, and some Republicans we’ve visited.  In the course of this campaign, many members have learned to develop briefs about the legislative records and campaign contributions of legislators, and detailed agendas to lead the legislators through our platform and goals, so our visits are well informed and carefully structured. The process has helped develop leadership among members, build relationships with legislators and teach us about how state government works.

PPF-PA Campaign Team Co-Coordinator, Borja Gutierrez, then led the group through the newly revised background document on the PHA (https://docs.google.com/document/d/14Q_xQ0DJh1u5bbPRMnjGQvN1aIwdoe3dxgTYVlsH-pY/edit) highlighting major issues, some of which are still under discussion, including:

  • The PHA would have power to investigate, prosecute or mediate violations of laws or policies, and should be in relationship with the state attorney general’s office;
  • The PHA would have broad power to “repair harm” caused by pre-existing or new situations;
  • The PHA would communicate between the eight agencies which have some jurisdiction over healthcare, but which currently don’t coordinate or communicate with each other.  This could be all important in emergency situations such as the pandemic;
  • PHA legislation would create a Community Advisory Board, including stakeholders such as PPF-PA, to lift up the needs of poor & dispossessed working class people in PA.

Then followed group discussion of concerns, such as funding models, relationship to the AG, and how this campaign could dovetail with defunding and demilitarization demands, for state police and state prisons, and those funds could go to the PHA.  Barbara explained that the Campaign Committee is working to step up the legislative campaign with more trainings on legislator briefs, and more legislative visits. 

Finally, small breakout groups met to try to figure out how the PHA would address specific  situations hurting people in Pennsylvania. The small groups discussed:

  • What would the Public Healthcare Advocate do to advance the organizing around the cancer cluster in Southwest PA (and water and land contamination that poses a public healthcare threat)?
  • What would the Public Healthcare Advocate do to advance the demand to release prisoners during COVID19?
  • What would the Public Healthcare Advocate do to defend undcoumented people who are experiencing a health crisis when they are threatened with deportation?
  • What would the Public Healthcare Advocate do about closed hospitals?
  • What would the Public Healthcare Advocate do to advance the fight to restore the adult dental benefit in Medicaid?  
  • What would the Public Healthcare Advocate do to protect workers during the COVID19 crisis/the re-opening?
  • What would the Public Healthcare Advocate do about the opioid crisis?
  • What would the Public Healthcare Advocate do to advance the fight for housing as healthcare?

Ending State Violence – Popular Education with Put People First! PA

Last Saturday 7.11.20 long-time and new members of PPF Joined in our July, Monthly Political Education session from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm. Normally the session is held on the first Saturday of the month, but it was postponed this month due to July 4th.

This session focused on the systemic connections between endless racist police violence, including the police murder of George Floyd which triggered recent unprecedented, global mass outrage that was taken to the streets in small towns and big cities everywhere, and the many other less visible forms of state violence that serves the interests of the wealthy by attacking poor and disposed people and denying us our human rights. 

Maddy opened with a welcome and introduction followed by a summary of recent actions and lessons of the Johnstown HRC in their work over the past month organizing and participating in local mass actions against the police murder of George Floyd.

There were forces in place in Johnstown who organized to co-opt and cancel the mass marches and direct people toward voting and joining the Police Advisory Committee as a means of pacifying the angry mood of the many hundreds of people who ‘took to the streets’ in protest marches. Our relationships with more militant thinking forces in the community who understand the diversions attempted by the local status quo are who our HRC sees building deeper connections with as we work in preparation for continued crisis.

Saturday’s session moved next to reading excerpts from a letter by Rev. Dr. William Barber, II: A Pastoral Letter To The Nation, addressing police brutality, pandemic and poverty. Small group breakout discussions reflected on it in relationship to the idea that “police murders of black people are the most visible expressions of state violence against the poor”

A second reading focused on protesters, organizing and bringing together the diversity of 300 black, Latino and white people by mostly young organizers in the small, working class town of Siler City North Carolina – population 8,200. The explosive conditions of economic struggle there are highlighted in a 6.9.20 article by Ben Watkins.

Nijmie identified political lessons based on years of experience and noted that the struggle we are in is a big project – a revolutionary project; transforming the whole system is needed.

We must be examining our work and learning the lessons from it as we assess the terrain and understand the forces at play fighting to shape this moment in people’s consciousness. (See Nijmie Dzurinko – Put People First! PA Internal Facebook Group – Admin June 9 for the full statement: Why We Must Build the Nonviolent Medicaid Army.)

In Saturday’s session, lots of valuable contributions were expressed by participants in the breakout groups and open discussions, from Rica, Gabrielle, Harrison, Ty, Dan, Andy, Larry N, Kyle, Jacob and others – thank you all for helping to formulate our collective understanding of both the challenges of this moment and the organizing needed to fight for our class.  

PPF-PA Political Education and Leadership Development team will continue the critically important work of political education with monthly scheduled sessions to inform the work of our members statewide. This monthly political education project has evolved to include the work, lessons and collective participation of sister organizations in other states.

“End the Cruel Conditions in Lancaster County Prison”

Tammy Rojas

On July 5, 2020 the Lancaster Healthcare Rights Committee CoHosted an action with Party for Socialism and Liberation- Lancaster “End the Cruel Conditions in Lancaster County Prison” to protest the recent death of an inmate at the Lancaster County Prison (LCP). We were also joined by a speaker from the Lancaster NAACP chapter.  Luis Ortiz-Velazquez, a 71-year-old man, was held in LCP for three days prior to his death, he died due to the inhumane conditions within the prison and how they are conducting processing of inmates during the Covid-19 pandemic. Tammy, a member of Put People First! PA and the Coordinating Committee of the Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign: a National Call for Moral Revival shared testimony and stated our Covid-19 demands regarding those who are currently incarcerated. 

“When I heard about the death of Luis Ortiz-Velazquez I was extremely angry.

I was angry because Luis lost his life due to our sick system, his death could have been prevented. The system in which we live kills 700 hundred every day from poverty alone.” 

Covid-19 Demands for those who are incarcerated:

Release of prisoners awaiting trial without bond and grant clemency for all the aged 50+; release and provide free treatment for any prisoner affected by an immunodeficiency. Release prisoners with the supportive services they need to ensure transportation, food, shelter, and healthcare. Ensure all incarcerated and staff are provided with hand sanitizer, cleaning supplies, and medical care. Allow free calls to families. We endorse the demands of the Amistad Law Project, the Abolitionist Law Center and the coalition to abolish death by incarceration and the ACLU of Pennsylvania. 

To see full video to remarks click here

At today’s “End the Cruel Conditions in Lancaster County Prison” action hosted by Lancaster PSL and Co-Hosted by us the…

Posted by Put People First PA Lancaster Healthcare Rights Committee on Sunday, July 5, 2020

To see our Covid-19 statement and full list of demands click here www.putpeoplefirstpa.org/Coronavirus 

Does UPMC Have Too Much Power in PA? Virtual Town Hall held June 4th proclaims a strong “Yes”

For Immediate Release:

Contact: Tammy Rojas | 717-205-3230 | tammyrojas1977@gmail.com

Put People First! PA (PPF-PA) hosted a Virtual Town Hall and Rally on June 4, 2020 to discuss the impact that University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) has on communities across Pennsylvania. Legally, UPMC is a “non-profit” charity, receiving tax breaks from the state of PA. However, PPF-PA’s analysis shows them to be a profiteer, in the sense that they take in more money than they pay out for costs (profit) and they use that money to pay their top executives and shareholders; as well as purchase more facilities to increase their market share, invest in the stock market, and lobby the state legislature through entities like the Hospital Association. UPMC acquired more than 20 PA hospitals between 2011 and 2018, and closed two of the eight hospitals closed in the state since the beginning of 2019.

PPF-PA members from across the state testified to the impact of hospital closings, and of the culture of rushed, inadequate care in UPMC hospitals.  Jennina Gorman of the Altoona Healthcare Rights Committee recalled her experience when her then healthy 25-year-old fiance went to a UPMC hospital emergency room in Altoona with severe, debilitating stomach pain multiple times. He was never examined, but sent home each time with pain medication. Only when Ms. Gorman threatened to sue the hospital did they examine him and then rush him to emergency surgery for a severely infected gall bladder that had produced sepsis. ”I thought I might be his widow before I was ever his wife,” she remarked.

Gwennette Freeman of the Mon Valley Healthcare Rights Committee pointed out that because the hospitals UPMC closed in Braddock and Lancaster disproportionately served people of color, hospital closings are a racial justice issue. She connected them to the police killings, and noted that the looting that has occurred in some recent protests is small compared to the corporate looting by healthcare profiteers. 

Others testified to poor care in UPMC hospitals and long waits in hospitals that remained in towns where UPMC had bought and then closed hospitals. Matthew Rosing of the Lancaster Healthcare Rights Committee testified that at Lancaster General Hospital, mental health patients have waited up to eighteen hours, following the closing of UPMC Pinnacle/St. Joseph’s hospital in 2019.

UPMC is a global corporation that reported a revenue of $20.6 billion in 2019. Based in Pittsburgh, they are increasingly taking over the for-profit healthcare industry in the state, and also have facilities in Maryland, Italy, Ireland and China. They are also planning to build new hospitals that will market to people from other countries with profitable specialty needs.

UPMC is the largest non-government employer in PA, and has a great deal of influence in the legislature. UPMC recently co-authored HB 2510 with PA House of Representatives Speaker Mike Turzai that will transfer $500 million dollars of Federal COVID19 funds into the hands of healthcare profiteers. The bill, which recently passed with a nearly unanimous vote in the House and Senate (notably State Representative Pam DeLissio voted against the bill) sets up a public/private financial authority that will fund “collaboratives” to operate assisted living residences, long-term care facilities and personal care homes.  The term “collaborative” appears misleading.  If the “collaborative” designates an action plan for a previously independent or publicly run facility there is nothing the facility can do to refuse.  Thus the term “collaborative” seems to be a stand-in for consolidation or even monopolization.

The stated purpose of the bill is to “promote health and stabilize the economy of the region by directly supporting COVID-19 readiness and response in facilities.” What is not stated is what “promoting health and stabilizing the regional economies” really means.   Would facilities be closed after the worst of COVID-19 is believed to have passed?  Given UPMC’s track record of closing facilities, this is a real concern. Other unaddressed concerns include:  if a facility is not profitable, will it be closed?  And if so, will people be able to access care?  Will it be affordable? To speaker Turzai it seems the most important thing is to get these funds into the hands of the private sector. 

But this isn’t just about Republicans in the legislature. The nearly unanimous passage of this bill in the House and Senate shows that there is a bipartisan consensus about private profiteering in our healthcare system. 

“Recently Harrisburg Democrats and their allies waged a campaign to get Speaker Turzai to resign over his cover-up of a COVID19 infection in the legislature. However when Turzai allows UMPC to write legislation of which they are a direct beneficiary, we don’t hear a peep,” remarked Nijmie Dzurinko, PPF-PA co-founder and co-coordinator.

“Most nursing home facilities in this state are run by private corporations and  private equity managers connected to Wall St. They buy up hundreds of nursing homes, cut corners to make profit. Then ask for millions in tax money because they can’t deliver what they promised. The state is facilitating looting of $500 million to give to corporations,” she added.

Tammy Rojas of the Lancaster Healthcare Rights committee noted that Gov Wolf recently extended his emergency declaration regarding COVID-19, and that the declaration should be used to reopen closed hospitals, redirect personal protective equipment and test kits to hospitals, grant Medicaid to everyone in Pennsylvania, and bring hospitals and other public facilities under public control.  

PPF-PA speakers emphasized the need to hold our elected officials accountable for facilitating healthcare profiteering at the people’s expense. 

The Town Hall was attended by over three dozen people from 10 counties across PA, including staff from the offices of Representatives Austin Davis and Matt Bradford and Senator Art Haywood.

Put People First! PA invites all community members who have been impacted by UPMC and other healthcare profiteers to join us at www.putpeoplefirstpa.org

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