Spring 2026 Newsletter
Table of Contents
Regional Reports
Committee Report
Of Interest:
Recommended Reading
Statewide single-payer health care is back on the table, with a promise of no tax increase for 91% of Ohioans
- Obamacare Won’t Work: Time for Medicare for All.
- How Medicare Advantage Fails Seniors of Color, A PNHP reports
- MassCare – video: Paying for Medicare for All in Massachussetts
- AI for Doctors
- CLASH update
- Report from the Ohio AFL-CIO: Patients, Allies to Deliver 8,000 Signatures Petitioning for Reinstatement of Unjustly Fired UH Pediatricians
Register at: SPAN 26 Conference
Registration starts at 9:00 AM.
Coffee & Refreshments will be available at that time.
The Conference starts at 10:00 AM, and runs through 4: 00 PM.
Agenda:
- Reports and Discussion about Healthcare for All Ohioans/SPAN Ohio – 10:00 AM
- Speakers – 11 AM – 12:30 PM
- Alex Lawson, Exec Director of Social Security Works – History of Single Payer Healthcare & Healthcare inequity for Seniors
- Rose Roach, National Coordinator of Labor Campaign for Single Payer Health Care – The Nature of Labor and Economic Class Inequity
- Nan Whaley, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio – Gender Inequity in Healthcare
- Panel discussion & Q&A
- Lunch – 12:30 PM
- Recognitions & Awards / fundraising
- Interactive Panel Discussion – 2 PM
- Willa Evans, President of the Cleveland Chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute
- Larry Bressler, Organizer for NOBLE (Northern Ohioans for Budget Legislation Equality)
- Dr. Valerie Fouts-Fowler, Concerned UH Physicians, (recently fired from University Hospitals in Cleveland for patient advocacy)
- Q&A
Elections – 3:00 PM
Closing Remarks – 4:00 PM Inspirational words from Claudia Fegan MD, past president of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP)
Registration for the Conference is $75. For Seniors, Students, and Members, the Registration is $60. Scholarship help is available. Please email span@spanohio.org if you need a scholarship. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
To pay electronically, go to the Registration Page: SPAN conference 26
To pay by check, make check payable to HCFAO or SPAN Ohio. Mail check to:
HCFAO, 2935 E Main St., PO BOX 9592, Columbus, OH 43209
The Deadline to Register is Wed., April 15
Speakers at the HCFAO Conference Saturday, April 25
Alex Lawson is the Executive Director of Social Security Works, the convening member of the Strengthen Social Security Coalition— a coalition made up of over 340 national and state organizations representing over 50 million Americans. Mr. Lawson has appeared on numerous TV and radio outlets and is a frequent guest covering Social Security and Medicare issues on The Thom Hartmann Program, one of the top progressive radio shows in the country.
Rose Roach is the National Coordinator for the Labor Campaign for Single Payer and serves as Chair of Healthcare for All Minnesota. Rose recently retired as the Executive Director of the MN Nurses Association, MNA, after 34 years in the labor movement having represented public school employees in both MN, her home state and CA before being hired at MNA in 2014. For two decades, Rose has been involved in the healthcare justice movement, as a trainer and national speaker while working with elected officials to craft legislation that moves us to a patient/provider-centered healthcare system.
Always involved in public service, Nan Whaley first served as Dayton city commissioner (2006 to 2013) and then Mayor (2014 to 2022). Nan has since July 2024 served as CEO of Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region. Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region serves 20 counties in southwestern Ohio and three in northern Kentucky. The organization operates five health centers throughout the region that provide health care and education related to reproductive and sexual health.
Betrayal, Burnout & Moral Injury:
On March 3, HCFAO held a webinar on “Betrayal, Burnout & Moral Injury: Doctors and the Financialization of Medicine“, in cooperation with Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP). PNHP surveyed practicing physicians across the country regarding the financialization of health care, its impact on patients, and what corporate control means for their profession. This crisis goes beyond burnout.
The presentation was led by Dr. Anand Habib of the University of California of San Francisco. Dr Valerie Fouts-Fowler [see below in the recommended reading section of this Newletter] gave local context to this issue.
You can watch the Webinar on Moral Injury at: https://youtu.be/hdO5oezjX2c
Learn more about the issue directly from Physicians for a National Health Program at: https://pnhp.org/understanding-moral-injury-in-health-care/
Regional Reports
Regional Coordinators, with their contact information, are noted. Please contact the Coordinator for your region if you would be interested in joining
Region 1 (Cleveland, Northeast Ohio)
Coordinator: Cathe Caraway (310-749-6111) cathe@carawaylaw.com
On February 11, Regional Coordinator Cathe Caraway was invited to speak on a Cleveland City Club Panel about “Health Care Inequality and Access to Care”. The attendees were mostly high school students, as was the moderator Nakshatra Mohan. Cathe spoke about how a Single Payer Universal Healthcare system would be the most effective way to deal with healthcare inequality. Many of the students stayed around to talk to Cathe afterwards. She received an invitation to speak as well as several names of interested people to follow up with.
Photos of City Club – Feb 11, 2026
Above photo, from right to left Nakshatra Mohan. Cathe Caraway, and Katie Davis Bellamy
Photo below, audience of students at City Club event
On February 21, we participated in the Resistance Fair at Cleveland Heights High School. Close to 50 different organizations were present for the Fair attendees to check out.
In photo below, Cathe Caraway and Nancy McCrickard are setting up the HCFAO table.
We supported Dr. Beene and Dr. Fouts-Fowler in the efforts at justice (see story below).
We also worked with our Akron area members to try to start a new HCFAO/SPAN group in that area. We held a first meeting on March 21. If you are, or know someone who is, in the Akron area (including Summit and surrounding counties), please contact the new Region 6 Coordinator Jennifer Lopez at @ (614) 633-6689 or email jenniferlopez01@myyahoo.com.
SPAN members participated in the No Kings Rallies on March 28. Here Nancy McCrickard is gathering signatures for the National Nurses United petition to ” Fund Health Care, Not Warfare”.
Our next Cleveland are meeting of HCFAO/SPAN will be Monday, April 13, at 5 PM on Zoom.
The next meeting of the Health Book Club will be Friday, May 1st from 3:30 to 5 pm. Site to be be determined. We will discuss The Great American Healthcare Heist: Why We’re Paying More and Getting Less by Chris E Deacon. For more information and details about these events, contact Clevelandspan@spanohio.org or call Cathe at (310) 749-6111, or Bob at (440) 838-8638.
Region 4 (Cincinnati, Southwest Ohio)
Coordinators: Deliah (Dee) Chavez (513-413-1178) dee49@fuse.net and Chot VanAusdall (513-617-5129) vanausdall@fuse.net
Activists in SW Ohio met in February to discuss opportunities for outreach, focusing on the rural counties in our region, as well as diverse groups in all counties.
We will firm up our list of activities at next meeting Wednesday, April 8th at 7PM by Zoom.
The co-coordinators gave a presentation in February to NE Hamilton County Dems.
We are seeking other venues for presentations.
Our Region 4 members are heavily involved in the Lobby Committee work.
Dee Chavez
Co-coordinator HCFAO/SPAN Region 4
Region 5 (Columbus, Central Ohio)
Outgoing Coordinator: Kurt Bateman (614-562-1066) Region5@healthcareforallohioans.org
Kurt Bateman has made application for booth space at Comfest 2026.
Comfest is a massive community and music festival with advocacy groups, food, crafts and more. It will take place at historic Goodale Park on June 26th, 27th, 28th, 2026 in Columbus.
In past years our organization has added more than 100 citizens to our advocate lists and heard a multitude of stories from people and patients struggling in our inequitable Healthcare “non-system”. We’ll need volunteers from across our organization to help “man” our booth all three days.
Please contact Kurt at Region5@healthcareforallohioans.org to claim a shift with us.
FUN Fact: Lincoln Goodale, who was one of the first practicing physicians in Columbus, donated the land to establish this park land. It was his practice to charge the wealthy and connected citizenry and offer free or reduced cost service to the indigent and poor of the community.
The April 25th Biennial HCFAO Conference planning is well underway and registrations are happening NOW. Our capacity is just 150 registrations so get your registration in!!
Please direct possible program sponsors to Kurt as well for inclusion in the 2026 program pamphlet.
Members in HCFAO/SPAN Ohio Region 5 continue to participate with Ohio Poor Peoples Campaign monthly assembly in the State House rotunda. These events happen Monthly on the first Wednesday from 12 noon til 1 PM. We share a song or two and offer meditation and prayer, hoping that our calls for economic and social justice will be heard by those we have elected. Being in community helps build momentum!
Region 5 will be scheduling region wide zoom meetings throughout the spring and summer to discuss outreach opportunities at any community gatherings that we can attend.
Finally: Nominations for the Smiddie and newcomer awards are welcome to Kurt.PDAmerica@gmail.com until April 15. Please put “Nomination” in the subject line.
SPAN Lobby Committee Report
1) The joint sponsors of the Ohio Healthcare Plan, SB78 gave sponsor testimony in the Financial Institutions, Insurance and Technology Committee in February, 2026.
2) In our meetings with state legislators we have continued to discuss some of the incremental plans instituted in other states.
Senators Bill Blessing and Beth Liston and Representative Karen Brownlee have taken on the task of creating a bill to enact Medicaid deprivatization.
Members of the SPAN Lobby Committee were included in the editing of the legislation.
SB 386 and HB780 ‘The Medicaid Savings Act’ were introduced in both chambers on March 19th, 2026 and subsequently referred to the Medicaid Committees in both chambers.
We have gained support from other legislators and have plans to meet with as many as we can.
This bill would eliminate risk-bearing MCO’s (Managed Care Organizations) from administering Medicaid, and would revert back to the system of The Department of Medicaid administering Medicaid.
A study by PNHP (Physicians for a National Health Plan) has shown that Ohio could save $400-800 million per year.
The savings would go back into Medicaid to make improvements in provider payments among other things.
3) We have begun to meet with people running for state office for the first time and have already found solid support for our efforts.
If you would like to join our Committee and become involved in these exciting developments, please email me at Dee49@fuse.net.
Submitted by Dee Chavez
Chair SPAN Lobby Committee
Of Interest
Don Rucknagel Obituary
Dr. Donald L Rucknagel, well known in Cincinnati for his leadership roles with the University [of Cincinnati] Hospital’s and Children’s Hospital’s sickle cell disease programs, passed away peacefully at home on February 14 at the age of 97. . . .
Dr. Rucknagel’s research career began in medical school, when he redirected his auto mechanic skills to inventing a machine to diagnose sickle cell disease from blood samples. He published over 150 articles in medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine. He did not retire until he was 90 years old. He devoted the last 25 years of his life fighting for health care access for all Ohioans. . . .
Mary Anne Curtiss, 2/21/2026
For full Obituary, go to: Donald Rucknagel Obituary
Region 4 Coordinator Dee Chavez has these memories about Dr. Rucknagel:
What I remember about Don is his sincere dedication to the cause of universal single payer healthcare in Ohio. He always said his aim was to get it done before he died. And then he would smile like he knew it was a long shot but really meant it.
He was always kind and a good mentor to me. He recruited me into what is now known as HCFAO/SPAN Ohio with a telephone call when he saw my name on the California Nurses Assn. database. He was always an active recruiter for our organization.
He involved me in several meetings with legislators in our area. I was unsure of myself at first but he was a great role model. He was very strategic in planning those meetings.
Then in 2015 when we had our annual conference and he knew I was planning to retire later that year, he surprised me by asking me if I would consider being coordinator for Region 4. I accepted and was elected. I later became the state chair of Lobby Committee also. It was his mentoring that lead me into the leadership roles I have taken with the organization. He mentored many others in HCFAO/SPAN as well.
He often talked about his work as an MD and I really respected that and enjoyed some of the interesting stories he told me and sometimes others. He also enjoyed talking about his upbringing and his parents’ influence, especially his dad.
I have shared with others who knew him and many are surprised and saddened, but happy he lived to age 97!
Dee
Recommended Reading
Statewide single-payer health care is back on the table, with a promise of no tax increase for 91% of Ohioans
By Karan Singh, cleveland.com
A sweeping proposal to replace much of Ohio’s private health insurance system with a government-run universal plan resurfaced at the Statehouse this week.
Senate Bill 78 had its first hearing before the Senate Financial Institutions, Insurance and Technology Committee during a meeting on March 3, where Democratic sponsors pitched the idea as a cost-saving transformation of the state’s health system. This prompted a discussion about feasibility, funding and whether a state government could realistically run such a program.
Designed to simplify the system, the Ohio Health Care Plan Act would establish a statewide single-payer health care system covering every resident. This would involve creating a new agency to administer a universal insurance program funded through a mix of taxes and federal health dollars that would pay providers through a central public fund.
. . .
Sponsor Sen. William P. DeMora explained that the legislation is motivated by the financial trade-offs many families have to negotiate when dealing with medical bills.
“We hear about people needing to choose between their insulin and rent, choosing between chemo or their house, or whether they will have the needed surgery or be able to feed their families,” he said. “Senate Bill 78 will make these stories a thing of the past for all Ohioans.”
. . .
Joint sponsor Paula Hicks-Hudson said the goal is to “ensure access to adequate health care … through a simplified health care delivery and billing process.”
Under the proposal, residents would receive comprehensive coverage with no copayments, deductibles or point-of-service charges. . . .
Statewide single-payer health care is back on the table
Obamacare Won’t Work: Time for Medicare for All. Our healthcare ‘system’—with or without the Affordable Care Act—is unsustainable: we have reached the end of the line
by Caroline Poplin
Those without employer sponsored insurance . . .are now learning what they voted for: higher premiums for health insurance, maybe unaffordable. Meanwhile, premiums continue to rise relentlessly for employers and employees.
Our healthcare “system” is unsustainable: we have reached the end of the line.
. . .
. . . for-profit health insurance does not work.
The idea of insurance is to spread risk over a maximum number of subscribers, each of whom is at the same low risk of unpredictable casualty, like fire. This was essentially the situation of Americans a century ago—illness and injury were acute and unpredictable, patients either recovered or died. Everyone was at similar risk, only surgery was expensive.
Today is different: illness is not only predictable, it can be chronic, even life long. Moreover, today’s scientific care is expensive. The social determinants of health—income security, education, adequate food and shelter, social support (your zip code, not your genetic code)—plus public health, keep healthy people healthy.
Medical care is for the sick.
For-profit health insurers maximize premiums, minimize cost (provider fees), keep the difference, and most important, avoid the sick. Insurers exclude those with “pre-existing” conditions whenever allowed (not under the ACA), deny “authorization” where they can. They tailor “plans” with carefully engineered restrictions you don’t discover until you file a claim. They are not even providing insurance: the payments from the Federal government are risk adjusted, so the insurers are paid more for riskier patients (and they are now illegally upcoding). The providers are not. Making this happen entails huge administrative expense, which adds no value for patients or providers, only massive returns to investors.
. . .
Dr. Caroline Poplin is an attorney (Yale Law School), Board certified general internist, health policy analyst, and retired Federal career civil servant.
Obamacare Won’t Work: Time for Medicare for All | Common Dreams
MassCare video: Paying for Medicare for All in Massachusetts
Let’s cut to the chase, by passing Medicare for All, almost $30 billion dollars can be saved annually through the Massachusetts Health Care Trust. This will be the single payer in Massachusetts and achieve the universal health care that our citizens deserve. The question of how we pay for it is answered along with showing that 98% of residents would SAVE money. Here is the video link or you can go to our website for the whole report, summary, references and slide deck.…In unity,Kimberley Connors, Executive DirectorMass-Care: the Massachusetts Campaign for Single Payer Health Care
AI for Doctors
Future of Health Care by Caitlin Owens, Axios
Doctors are increasingly using generative AI in clinical care, and enthusiasm is building for how the technology could solve deeply entrenched problems.
Why it matters: There’s a wide spectrum of applications — some already widely embraced by the medical establishment, others viewed more skeptically as not ready for primetime or even dangerous.
. . .
Driving the news: Only 19% of physicians aren’t using AI professionally now, according to a new survey released yesterday by the American Medical Association.
- The most common use was to summarize medical research and standards of care, with 70% of respondents saying they’re already using AI that way or planning to in the next year.
- Other top uses are to create discharge instructions and care plans, summarize patient charts and to document billing codes, notes from patient conversations and more.
. . .
Between the lines: Today’s uses are primarily about saving doctors time with research and administrative tasks. And that is meaningful amid widespread physician burnout and provider shortages.
. . . .
Some uses are being framed as downright dangerous, especially in diagnostics.
- “AI systems are only as good as the algorithms they use and the data on which they are trained, and the potential for errors remains a significant concern,” the report warns.
. . .
What we’re watching: The less-controversial uses, like AI for administrative tasks, will likely build a case for more disruptive applications down the road.
- “They create a level of trust that is necessary as you move on to more ambitious uses, which will almost inevitably be riskier uses,”said Bob Wachter, chair of the Department of Medicine at UCSF and the author of “A Giant Leap: How AI is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future.”
CLASH update
CLASH – Cleveland Lead Advocates for Safe Housing – held a press conference on Monday, March 2 at City Hall in Cleveland
where they “outlined demands like increased testing and a resource center for the city to adequately and quickly address the lead poisoning crisis in the city at a Monday press conference, following the city’s recent loss of $3.3 million in federal funding for lead remediation” For more information, go to:
In the picture below, Yvonka Hall of the Northeast Ohio Community Resilience Centre is speaking. Among the people at the Press Conference is Cleveland SPAN member Brian Houlehan (far left)
Update to the update:
The week after the press conference, Mayor Bibb of Cleveland appointed Rebecca Maurer, formerly a leader in CLASH, and also a former City Councilperson to be senior advisor for lead accountability. According to the Cleveland Scene:
Rebecca Maurer Hired as Cleveland’s Chief Lead Advisor
The former city councilwoman told Scene she plans to extend the preventative philosophy—get homes remediated and Cleveland kids tested—behind the 2019 law she helped draft
. . .
Although testing rates climbed citywide in 2021, they’ve fallen since then, Lead Safe’s dashboard shows. Cleveland’s lead problem is “two times higher” than Flint, Michigan, Maurer said, “at the height of their crisis.”
The issue is that testing has historically been reactive; Cleveland kids are surveyed for lead exposure only after the homes they’re living in have been looked at, certified and remediated with brand new paint. Maurer said it was her intention, working as a Legal Aid attorney in 2019, to write clear-eyed legislation to reverse Cleveland’s lagging approach and make it proactive and more preventative.
. . .
It’s decade of input and experience that Maurer is bringing to City Hall in her new capacity. She’ll bring a philosophy that lies in policy related to the city’s Residents First program, which fines landlords if the rental housing they own is consistently not up-to-code.
Read full article at:
Report from the Ohio AFL-CIO weekly News Briefs. March 24,2026: Patients, Allies to Deliver 8,000 Signatures Petitioning Reinstatement of Unjustly Fired UH Pediatricians
State Senator Kent Smith led a delegation of patients, elected leaders and community allies in delivering 8,000 petition signatures at the University Hospitals (UH) Management Services Center Building to demand that UH reinstate doctors Lauren Beene and Valerie Fouts-Fowler, two beloved pediatricians who were fired after leading a unionization effort. The petition also calls for UH to respect doctors’ rights to speak up for patient care and form a union without fear or retaliation.
“I stand firmly alongside doctors Beene and Fouts-Fowler because they were standing up for patients,” said Smith. “When UH leadership made the decision to fire these two doctors, they were hoping to silence other frontline medical professionals. But we are here again, and we are not silent. The only permanent outcome accomplished by UH is that they tarnished their reputation as a top quality hospital system that truly cares about patient outcomes.”
Supporters said their termination is a clear act of retaliation against protected union activity and a direct threat to patient care, physicians’ voices and the integrity of our healthcare system. The physicians have received the support of elected leaders, professional associations, and community allies, including the Ohio Senate and House Democratic Caucuses, Cleveland City Council, Ohio Nurses Association, and labor unions, all who have raised deep concern with University Hospitals’ handling of this matter.
HCFAO/SPAN OHIO LINKS
Healthcare For All Ohioans/SPAN Ohio (HCFAO/SPAN Ohio):
Find us on Instagram:
instagram healthcare4allohio
TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@healthcare4allohio
To send articles, events, letters or comments to this newsletter, please email the Communications Committee (Cindy Bamford, Linda Brown, Tim Bruce, Brian Houlehan, Dena Magoulias and Bob Parker (Chair)).
The email address is:
ClevelandSpan@SpanOhio.org. This newsletter is posted under Resources.
| SPAN exists due to the generosity of individual donors. Please consider a donation today: Donations SPAN Ohio is a 501(c)4 non-profit organization. Donations to SPAN Ohio are not tax deductible. Follow us on Twitter. Like us on Facebook. |