Single-payer healthcare may be an idea whose time has finally come. Health Care for All-Washington (HCFA-WA) has been working on this issue for ten years, but after the focus of the 2016 presidential campaign and the enactment of universal healthcare in Vermont (also being considered in New York, California, Nevada, and Oregon), there is an enormous amount of interest around the topic of the current health care crisis in the United States.

Many are wondering what the current Senate Republican plan would look like. What healthcare needs would be included in the plan? Who would lose the most if it is enacted? Who gains from the plan? What can be done about it?

And then there are a few more fundamental questions: Should health care be treated as a commodity that can be bought and sold like a television or a cell phone? Does the right to health care need to be earned? Or is health care a basic human right like water and food?

For answers to these questions and more, please join Huddle Lopez Island, Transition Lopez Island and HCFA-WA at a single-payer informational event, to be held at Grace Church, 70 Sunset Lane, on Monday, July 10, from 4:30–6:45 p.m. Refreshments will be served and on-site childcare provided. Donations will be accepted to cover costs and raise money for HCFA-WA.

Dr. John Geyman, noted author, health care policy expert, and professor emeritus of family medicine at the UW School of Medicine in Seattle, will speak on the crisis in U.S. health care, how it happened, and how a single-payer system can resolve this crisis. His latest book is “Crisis in U.S. Health Care: Corporate Power vs. the Common Good.” Is it possible to move from a corporate model to a “common good” model in health care?

With over 60 years of experience in the medical community, Dr. Geyman delivers an evidence-based, objective, non-partisan, and well-documented presentation for those interested in where our health care system is going and what it means for them.

After Dr. Geyman’s talk, Marcia Stedman, President of Health Care for All-Washington, will speak on the creation of our own state-based single-payer health care plan, the Washington Health Security Trust.

She will discuss specific actions that you can take to make state-based single-payer health care a reality in Washington State.

Got more questions? All of this will be followed by a Q &A session. Come learn about single-payer health care and how you can support the movement on Lopez Island and in Washington State!

For further information, contact Laura Matthews 360-375-6216 or LauramatthewsRN@gmail.com