The Struggle for Single Payer in the Time of Obamacare

There is an alternative to our broken for profit health care system. It's called single payer. The newly passed US federal health care legislation does nothing to lessen the grip of the private insurance industry on our health care system. It does little to change the shameful disparities in access to treatment or control costs. At a number of Jobs with Justice chapters around the country, we are organizing and mobilizing for real health care reform: an improved and expanded Medicare for All system, with everybody in, nobody out. Single payer advocates were excluded from the recent health care debate. Now we are in the process of evaluating our efforts and strategizing for the next phase. Do we try to expand Medicare to cover those fifty and over? Do we pursue state single payer strategies? How do we make national and state level efforts support each other? This workshop will provide a brief analysis of Obamacare, recap single payer advocates' organizing efforts and engage participants in discussion about strategic directions moving forward.