Our Bodies Ourselves' executive director, Judy Norsigian, has been a longstanding member of PRIM&R's Board of Directors. We felt the following press release might be of interest to our readers.
Our Bodies Ourselves Endorses Single Payer Healthcare
Single-Payer Models Are the Best Option for Women, Says OBOS Executive Director Judy Norsigian
06.15.2009 – Boston – Our Bodies Ourselves today endorsed the single-payer healthcare model as the most effective approach for solving the United States' health and medical care crisis.
In a comprehensive position paper, the nonprofit women's health organization argues that a single-payer model is best positioned to control costs and to reduce financial incentives that have led to both inadequate and excessive medical treatment.
Our Bodies Ourselves outlines exactly what women stand to gain from a single-payer system. The benefits are also the subject of an op-ed published Monday, June 15, in the Boston Globe, co-written by Judy Norsigian, OBOS executive director, and Jennifer Potter, MD, director of the Women's Health Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and director of Women's Health at Fenway Health.
"The only national plan for healthcare reform that explicitly includes women's reproductive health services, including abortion, is one sponsored by Rep. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat," they write. "Other sponsors of single-payer plans are also amenable to including women's reproductive health services."
Lee is expected to re-introduce H.R. 3000, the United States Universal Health Service Act, this legislative session.
More than 10 benefits for women are discussed in detail in the position paper. Among them:

Single-Payer Models Are the Best Option for Women, Says OBOS Executive Director Judy Norsigian
06.15.2009 – Boston – Our Bodies Ourselves today endorsed the single-payer healthcare model as the most effective approach for solving the United States' health and medical care crisis.
In a comprehensive position paper, the nonprofit women's health organization argues that a single-payer model is best positioned to control costs and to reduce financial incentives that have led to both inadequate and excessive medical treatment.
Our Bodies Ourselves outlines exactly what women stand to gain from a single-payer system. The benefits are also the subject of an op-ed published Monday, June 15, in the Boston Globe, co-written by Judy Norsigian, OBOS executive director, and Jennifer Potter, MD, director of the Women's Health Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and director of Women's Health at Fenway Health.
"The only national plan for healthcare reform that explicitly includes women's reproductive health services, including abortion, is one sponsored by Rep. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat," they write. "Other sponsors of single-payer plans are also amenable to including women's reproductive health services."
Lee is expected to re-introduce H.R. 3000, the United States Universal Health Service Act, this legislative session.
More than 10 benefits for women are discussed in detail in the position paper. Among them:
- Coverage is independent from employment.
- Coverage is independent from marriage.
- Single-payer system would encourage better care for chronic illnesses.
- Single-payer system would eliminate the need for Medicaid.
- Single-payer system would address the cost issues that send women into debt and bankruptcy.