On a glorious early fall Sunday afternoon, 50 concerned citizens from Utica and the surrounding area spent two hours listening to a panel of speakers discuss single payer healthcare, and the systems that are being proposed at both the New York state and the federal US levels. The forum was organized by the Health Care Sub-Committee of Indivisible Mohawk Valley, indivisiblemv.com/

Dr. Sunny Aslam, assistant professor of psychiatry at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse and member of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), opened the forum by discussing the implications of single payer healthcare at the national level. Dr. Aslam noted that “No country that has adopted universal health care has ever gone back. Why? Because it is better healthcare. It’s also more efficient with only a 2-3 percent administrative cost compared to 12-18 percent the way the US does it now.”

Read the full letter at the Oneida Daily Dispatch here.