Forum: Fund HealthCare not Warfare
Pressing Needs for the Public’s Health and Pandemic Protection
Presented by our friends and colleagues at Massachusetts Peace Action
The healthcare, public health, and pandemic prevention sectors remain very diverse, often somewhat siloed. Hospital physicians, hospital staff, hospital nurses; nursing home staff; local public health authorities; biomedical researchers; biotech staff; personal care attendants; patients in different facilities; diverse communities suffering higher levels of infection.
Their political goals are often diverse; thus, the struggle for Medicare for All doesn’t directly address nursing concerns for staffing limits; the effort to get Chelsea residents vaccinated doesn’t deal with their inability to access healthcare if they do get sick.
It seems clear that strengthening the state and the nation’s Public Health Infrastructure would lift most boats.
Bringing some of these advocates together doesn’t solve the problems, but could help in mapping out some of the coming struggles, both in the State Legislature, City Councils, and even Congress:
The Forum below is an effort to find common ground among diverse constituencies advocating improved and expanded public health and healthcare, financed in part by cutting the bloated Pentagon budget.
Forum Program
11 PM – 2 PM:
Opening: Heidi Hoechst – National Nurses United
Panel 1 (11:20): Large Scale Concerns (Chair: Louise Parker)
Single Payer /Medicare for All initiative- Michael Lighty (The Sanders Institute)
Single Payer /Medicare for All initiatives- Alan Meyers.
National public health needs- Elizabeth Sommers (BU, APHA)
Biomedical research/vaccines- Jonathan King (MIT)
Video (12:20): Ed Markey talking about ICBM (Invest in Care Before Missiles) bill (invited)
Break (12:30)
Panel 2 (12:40): Issues Breaking in Massachusetts (Chair, Catherine DeLorey)
Practicing Medicine and Public Health- Deepa Soni
Mass Nurses Assn Priorities- Katie Murphy
Special needs in Communities of Color- Vonzella Bryant
Panel 3 (1:10): Fund Health Care Not Warfare: Coming State and Federal Legislative Battles: (Chair: Amar Ahmad)
State Legislative Budgets- Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa
Mass-Care Campaigns- Sandy Eaton
Continuing Vaccine Access- Natalia Linos
Physicians for Social Responsibility- Martin Fleck
Free The Vaccine activist group speaker- Christopher Noble
Program Committee: Amar Ahmad, Catherine DeLorey, Sandy Eaton, Jonathan King, Allen Meyers, Louise Parker, Emily Downing.
Cosponsors: Mass-Care: the Massachusetts Campaign for Single Payer Health Care, Right Care Boston, Boston Physicians for a National Health Program, Center for Community Health Education Research and Service, the Warterlow Policy Workshop, the Women’s Health Institute, Harvard School of Public Health, Mission Hill Health Movement, Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign, and Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility.