A trio of progressives in Congress invoked the 45th birthday of Medicare Friday to call for a national single payer health insurance system, predicting it’s “inevitable” if Americans want lower costs.

“It has never been more important to have a strong movement behind Medicare for All,” wrote Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Reps. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and John Conyers (D-MI) in a letter addressed to “friends of health care for all.”

The trio, all of whom have sponsored single payer bills, argued that cost controls are insufficient in the health reform law enacted March and claimed the growing need to save money would galvanize support for such a system.

“As we honor Medicare’s 45th birthday today, I am proud to say that the movement for Medicare for All remains strong and vibrant,” Kucinich said.

While various lawmakers have endorsed single payer proposals, it remains far out of the reach of Congress due to the prevalence of anti-government public sentiments and the political influence of the private insurance industry, which would be torn down.

The Affordable Care And Patient Protection Act, enacted by President Barack Obama in March, is projected by the Congressional Budget Office to cover nearly all Americans and reduce the deficit. It has no new public insurance programs.

Although Sanders, Kucinich and Conyers all voted for the new law, they said in the letter that it “does not adequately contain costs” for Americans.

“In my view, the single-payer approach is the only way we will ever have a cost-effective, comprehensive health care system in this country,” said Sanders.

A Commonwealth Fund report last month found that Americans spend roughly twice as much on medical costs than residents of other industrialized nations yet the US system lags in areas of quality, efficiency and equity.

Sanders and Kucinich have led on pushing for national or state-based single payer programs in the Senate and House respectively, but have failed to garner the necessary support.

According to reports, Medicare, a single payer system for the elderly in America, has lower overhead costs and higher satisfaction rates than private insurance on average.

The White House and Democratic National Committee on Friday proclaimed their commitment to sustaining and strengthening Medicare.

“We believe Medicare for All is inevitable in the United States,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is up to all of us to determine when the inevitable becomes reality.”

Read the open letter here (.pdf).

Some House members who have previously backed a single-payer healthcare reform bill say they will not vote for a similar measure when it hits the floor this fall.

Of the 12 serving House members who co-sponsored Rep. John Conyers’s (D-Mich.) single-payer bill (H.R. 676) in the last Congress but not in this Congress, four have indicated they will vote no on a single-payer bill to be offered by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.).

The four members are Reps. Joe Baca (D-Calif.), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), David Scott (D-Ga.), and Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.).

“It’s a whole new ballgame,” said Baca spokesman Mike Trujillo. “[Baca] supports a public option and not a single-payer system at this time.”

In an interview with The Hill, Scott said, “I support a public option. It’s an excellent compromise and the best vehicle to garner enough votes to pass….Single-payer isn’t going to get the votes. A public option is the best shot we have to lower costs and provide coverage to most Americans.”

Johnson adopted a similar tone in a statement to The Hill: “I have supported legislation like H.R. 676 in the past, but this year I support America’s Affordable Health Choices Act because it has a much better chance of becoming law.”

America’s Affordable Health Choices Act is the lead healthcare reform bill moving in the House.

Reps. Andre Carson (D-Ind.), Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), Betty Sutton (D-Ohio), and James Moran (D-Va.), all previous co-sponsors of a single-payer bill, but not co-sponsors this year, did not comment for this article.

Moran was asked his position on Weiner’s amendment by a constituent during an Aug. 25 town hall meeting.

“I don’t know,” said Moran. “It will depend on what it takes to get the bill out of the House. Now that the president has endorsed a bill, I’m inclined to support that bill.”

Reps. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) and Laura Richardson (D-Calif.), also past supporters, remain open to Weiner’s amendment but have not made a final decision about whether to vote for it.

The retreat by some Democrats has caught the attention of single-payer advocacy groups.

“It doesn’t represent lack of confidence in single-payer, but more of what kind of assault will come from the extreme right wing,” said Quentin Young, national coordinator for Physicians For A National Health Program.

In late July, Weiner offered a single-payer amendment during the Energy and Commerce Committee markup but withdrew it after both panel chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) promised that his amendment would get a floor vote.

Of the three House committee chairman with jurisdiction on health reform — Waxman, Rangel and George Miller (D-Calif.) — only Miller is a current co-sponsor of the Conyers measures.

Waxman cosponsored the measure in the 109th Congress.

It is unclear how Waxman will vote on the single-payer amendment, but hinted he would vote no.

“I will support the bill with the best chance of passing and reaching the president’s desk,” Waxman said when he was asked on Aug. 1 how he would vote on the Weiner amendment.

Democratic leadership is expected to split on the vote. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is not a cosponsor and neither is Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.).

Van Hollen has never co-sponsored a single-payer bill but said in a letter to Progressive Neighbors in 2008, “I will continue to fight for universal health care and support a single payer approach.” Van Hollen’s office did not return calls for comment.

Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), who in past years co-sponsored a single-payer bill but has not formally backed it this year, indicated he would vote yes.

“He’s supported single-payer in the past and he supports it now,” Clyburn spokeswoman Kristie Greco said.

Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, is a current co-sponsor of H.R. 676.

H.R. 676 currently has 86 co-sponsors – all Democrats. In the last Congress, the Conyers measure had 93 co-sponsors, and 78 in the 109th Congress.

A single-payer amendment offered by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), which would allow states to set up single-payer systems, passed 27-19 with 13 Republican votes last month during the Education and Labor Committee markup of healthcare reform.

One Democratic aide close to the healthcare debate said, “It would be interesting to know whether the 13 Republicans who voted to pass a single-payer amendment during the House Education and Labor Committee markup plan on supporting Rep. Weiner’s amendment … Either these 13 Republicans had a serious change of heart or this vote is just further proof that House Republicans are more interested in political gimmicks than working to fix our broken health insurance system,”

Alexa Marrero, GOP spokeswoman for The Education and Labor Committee, fired back: “That vote was a states’ rights issue vote. Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) [the ranking member on the committee] has not and will not support a single-payer plan … This is more about Democrats’ inability to form a coherent position on healthcare.”

Over one thousand single-payer activists descended on Capitol Hill on July 30th, 2009 to celebrate Medicare’s 44th Birthday as concurrent actions planned across the country and on the Hill culminated to pay great tribute to the nation’s most popular social program that is indeed the largest single-payer in the country of hospitals and doctors.

The message of the day was clear: Support Medicare for all NOW! Medicare has successfully provided care to seniors and people with disabilities for almost half a century. Since its enactment, poverty in those over 65 has been reduced by over 60% thanks to Medicare. Medicare is a truly American-made system that other health care systems around the world have since been modeled after. With little over 3% administrative overhead, we must look to this American solution to our health care crisis.

Over 200 activists lined up to deliver cupcakes and birthday cards to honor Medicare to every member of Congress. The activists lobbied morning and afternoon for Medicare for all, only breaking for a rally at Upper Senate Park that featured many wonderful speakers, including Dr. David Scheiner, Obama’s personal physician of 22 years who is calling for President to enact Medicare for all, State Senator Jim Ferlo who gathered over 100 signatures from fellow state legislators in support of HR 676, Terry O’Neil, President of National Organization for Women, Rep. John Conyers, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Tim Carpenter (National Director of PDA), Medea Benjamin (Code Pink and Global Exchange), Donna Smith (California Nurses Association and co-chair of PDA’s Healthcare NOT Warfare Campaign) and Baucus 8 arrestees: Mark Dudzic (Labor Party), Dr. Margaret Flowers (PNHP) and Katie Robbins (Healthcare Now!), and various union leaders. Everyone stood unified in support of efforts to implement Medicare for All.

Many exciting developments occurred on the hill that day and leading into Friday. Congressman Anthony Weiner introduced, with brilliant ironic flair, an amendment in the Energy and Commerce Committee to eliminate Medicare. He was happy to see a unanimous vote against the amendment, and then proceeded on July 31st to introduce an amendment to HR 3200 for Medicare for All. This courageous gesture was met with a surprising deal from Chairman Waxman and Speaker Pelosi to allow HR 676 to come to the floor of the House for full debate, discussion, and a vote after the August recess. Congressman Weiner accepted the opportunity to bring single-payer legislation to the floor for full debate. This is an incredible opportunity that the single-payer movement has brought to fruition.

Our national ask is now clear: Tell you Congressperson to vote for HR 676! More details and campaign resources will be announced shortly

In addition to the progress of HR 676, Congressman Kucinich spoke at a packed Congressional briefing that explored the passage on Friday, July 17th, by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-OH, in the House Education and Labor Committee, of the amendment that would allow the necessary federal ERISA waivers for states that pass and implement single payer healthcare plans for their citizens. The amendment will be considered as part of the Tri-Committee health reform bill as marked-up by two of the three committees of jurisdiction in the House.

Many encouraging statements have since been delivered to us at Healthcare-NOW!, including Michael Carano of PDA Ohio, “the single-payer movement should be encouraged by the numbers, diversity and broad range of organizations that came to this Healthcare Now! organized rally. It wasn’t a day in the park, an afternoon field trip if you will, for those who came to Washington on July 30. The single-payer crowd was made up of activists, and these activists are the ones who will go home and keep building the movement for real change. Their unrelenting enthusiasm and tenaciousness will not abate until single-payer healthcare is our nation’s healthcare system. They are working not just to put single-payer healthcare on the table but to make possible an expanded and improved Medicare for All, a publicly financed, privately provided program that will end the disparity and immorality of a system in which profit takes precedence over people.

The simple truth is that those who profit from illness, those who siphon money out of healthcare for the advantage of the few—in short, the corporate health insurance industry—will eventually have no positive role in our healthcare system and will be ousted from the system for good, and for the good of us all.

Our message is clear. Our hope is boundless. Our solution is economically feasible. Our resolve is implacable. Join us in this effort.”

Thank you to everyone who made the tremendous efforts on July 30th possible. Healthcare-NOW! especially thanks the work of our National Coordinator and founder, Marilyn Clement, who passed away on Monday August 3rd, after a year long struggle with multiple myeloma cancer. Her spirit lives in the single-payer movement. We are composing a more detailed announcement, but until then, let us simply echo as we reflect on the great progress we have made, Marilyn has alway said from the beginning of her work on single-payer health care – “We are going to win.”

Thank you to the full list of sponsors of the July 30th rally, especially the California Nurses Association, Physicians for a National Health Program, Progress Democrats of America, and Public Citizen. A full list of the over 50 sponsoring organizations can be found here.

Photos of the day can found here.

Thank you to the Real News Network for their piece on the July 30th events.

Murtha, who has represented Pennsylvania’s 12th CD since 1974, is the eighth most senior member of the House of Representatives, and chairs the Defense subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee.

Those who met with Murtha came from the Greater Westmoreland County Labor Council in Greensburg and the Johnstown Regional Central Labor Council. The group included Ed Grystar, Harriet Ellenberger and Rosemary Trump, all Executive Board members of the Westmoreland Council, and Terry Havener of the Johnstown Council. Also in the delegation was Father Bernard Survil,
a Catholic priest active in labor affairs.

Ed Grystar said, after learning that Murtha has signed on as a co-sponsor, “The fact that Murtha, from a relatively conservative middle of the road district, signed on as a co-sponsor signifies that the grass roots movement for single payer is growing and opportunities exist to get others from similar districts to sign on.”

In addition to Murtha, Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) also signed on to HR 676 on July 9. Weiner is a member of the Energy & Commerce Committee which is one of three committees writing the House bill.

See HR 676 labor endorsements at unionsforsinglepayerHR676.org.

To take action, go to the AI-USA online Action Center: Health Care is a Human Right — Urge the Senate to Have a Real Debate on Single Payer

We at Amnesty International believe that policymakers have a historic opportunity to reform a broken health care system. During the presidential debates, Barack Obama took a step in the right direction by affirming that health care should be a right. The legislation now emerging from Washington is, however, a long way from fulfilling that vision.

One reason the current draft legislation falls short of the mark is that single-payer advocates, a crucial human rights constituency, have been largely excluded from the reform process. While the human right to health care does not mandate any particular type of health care system, of the reform proposals being discussed in the U.S. today, the single-payer plans are more universal, equitable and accountable — the three key principles of the human right to health care. Single-payer plans approach health care as an essential service and a public good. A single-payer health care system would pair private delivery with public financing — that is, with private doctors, clinics and hospitals getting all their reimbursement from the government. Medicare, a well-established and popular part of our current health care system, works this way; a single-payer system would institute an improved Medicare for all.

Two of Amnesty International’s ally organizations, the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative and the National Health Law Program, have analyzed current single-payer proposals, and found them to come much closer to fulfilling the human right to health care than the market-based reform plans.

But the powerful Senate Finance Committee, the single most important legislative grouping in the reform process, has yet to hold a public hearing on single-payer. In fact, the committee chair, Sen. Max Baucus, has said that single-payer is “off the table” — a stance he has since acknowledged was mistaken.

Advocates for a human rights-based approach to health care must be included in the reform process. Tell Max Baucus to hold a Finance Committee hearing on single-payer!

Publicly financed and administered health care should be expanded as the strongest vehicle for making health care universally accessible and accountable. Single-payer is a crucial proposal for fulfilling the human right to health care. Without a single-payer seat at the table, we risk that no one will speak up for true universality and a fair, equitable health care system..

Too much of the current debate about health care assumes that we can talk about health care in the same way that we talk about consumer products. But health care is not about markets; it is about the right of every person to live a life of dignity. In health care reform, human rights must come first.

Though things are moving very fast in Congress, it’s not too late to make your voice heard. Tell Max Baucus that single-payer advocates must be heard!

Sincerely,

Sameer Dossani
Demand Dignity Campaign Director
Amnesty International, USA

P.S. You can always get more information on Amnesty International’s Healthcare Is A Human Right project and sign our petition at http://www.amnestyusa.org/healthcare

At a long-awaited House subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, health-care professionals made it clear that they believe a single-payer system to be the best and perhaps only workable option for health care reform.

“Single-payer is the only reform that can control health care costs,” said Walter Tsou, a University of Pennsylvania professor and an adviser to Physicians for a National Health Program. The last 50 years of government policy have protected insurance industry profits at the expense of taxpayers, doctors and hospitals, he said.

“Our most famous radical document begins with the words, ‘We the People.’ Not ‘We the Insurers,’” he said. “It is time for our own generation’s revolution.”

For the most part, the panelists testifying before the Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee agreed that spiraling costs are the greatest problem currently facing the medical community and its patients.

“Unless you can stop the insurance industry price gouging, we simply cannot make health care affordable, which means you either have price controls on the insurance industry or you take them out of the equation through single-payer reform,” said Geri Jenkins, the co-president of the National Nurses Organizing Committee, which represents 86,000 registered nurses. “If we were to have a debate on containing costs, improving quality and universality, the single-payer advantage would be clear.”

The discussion about a single-payer approach has been slow in coming because congressional leaders and the White House took a single-payer system off the table early in talks on health care reform. But there are signs that they regret that decision now.

Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.), the subcommittee chairman, said he worries that systemic inefficiencies in U.S. health care make the nation less competitive abroad. Ranking subcommittee member Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) complained that health care is moving too quickly through Congress, noting that Wednesday’s hearing was announced Thursday night, less than the customary week to 10 days he prefers to wait. But Andrews, who witnessed the failure of Clinton-era health care reform, responded, “it’s not being done nearly quickly enough.”

Fifteen years after the Clinton plan collapsed, the U.S. remains far behind other industrialized nations on health care, Judiciary Committee chair John Conyers (D-Mich.) told the subcommittee. Conyers said he has “a plan of a plan” for a “uniquely American” single-payer program that in its current form requires 3.5 percent of a taxpayer’s income.

“This is the most popular system in the minds of most Americans,” he said of single-payer generally, citing polls and constituents’ calls to his office. “If you take the most popular health care option and take it off the table, heaven knows what you’re left with.”

Four of the five panelists, including Conyers, spoke in favor of single-payer. The only person in opposition was Manhattan Institute fellow David Gratzer, a doctor born and trained in Canada, who said the Canadian national-health system struggles to provide care to its citizens. “Like the Soviet Union, everything is free, nothing is available,” Gratzer said.

But as long as Congress adequately funds health care, the other panelists said, that won’t be an issue. “If they were to put the same amount of money into their systems as we do into ours, there would be no waits,” said Marcia Angell, a Harvard lecturer and former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.

“The reason our health care system is in such trouble is that it’s set up to generate profits, not to provide care,” Angell said, noting that private insurers spend 20 percent on marketing and administrative costs, compared with 3 percent for Medicare. She deemed the health-insurance sector “an industry that offers almost nothing of value.”

Most of the panelists dismissed concerns of job losses at private insurers, arguing that employment would increase overall given the increased demand for medical professionals. Jenkins estimated total job creation at 2.6 million.

Some subcommittee Republicans seemed insulted by the very idea that the U.S. health care system needs reform. “I’ve been struck by the testimony about how awful the quality of American health care is,” Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), who is a doctor, said. U.S. care, Price said, is second “almost to none.”

Poor U.S. health outcomes, Gratzer argued, are a function simply of poor U.S. lifestyle choices, like smoking, drinking, overeating and murdering. If you remove murders and accidental deaths from U.S. deaths per year, he said, the “crude statistics” become less compelling.

Andrews seemed impatient with Gratzer’s responses, especially when he argued that more time spent “hanging out with the family doctor” could improve individual health.

Andrews and full committee chair Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) are scheduled to discuss a single-payer system with the House Ways and Means Committee later Wednesday, and the subcommittee chair noted the presence of Ways and Means member Pete Stark at the hearing. “This is the beginning of the process, not the end,” Andrews said.

To the Baby Boomers who packed the Rochester Museum and Science Center’s Eisenhart Auditorium last night, Representative John Conyers (D-MI) is something of a folk hero. He has pushed for health-care reform for more than a decade. In his soft-spoken Walt Disney-like voice, he said, “We’re at a crossroads in this country,” referring to the ailing US health-care system. Meeting President Barack Obama’s request for a bill he can sign into law by the end of this year that would reform health care is going to be difficult, he said.

Conyers is the author HR 676: The US National Healthcare Act, a single-payer approach to health-care reform. He was here to talk about the bill and the obstacles to getting it through the House and Senate at “Rochester Speaks Out.” The meeting also featured Representative Eric Massa (D-NY), actress and activist Mimi Kennedy, and University of Rochester professor Theodore Brown. Rochester was one of 50 cities nationwide holding similar meetings.

Conyers warned that just because Democrats hold power in the White House and control the House and the Senate, history shows that Democrats can’t be relied on for health-care reform any more than Republicans. Former President Bill Clinton and his wife, now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, not only sought the wrong advice on crafting new legislation, they made it too complicated, Conyers said.
Obama, he said, is heading down a similar path.

“Some of the people in his Cabinet are not the smartest people,” Conyers said.

And he is worried that Democrats will not have the political will to stand up to opponents of single-payer care. Polling from mainstream media shows that the public knows that the health-care system doesn’t work, but is divided about action to correct it.

HR 676 has 75 co-sponsors, but there are Democrats who still have not signed on to the bill, including Rochester Representative Louise Slaughter. And some Democrats in Congress, Conyers said, are actively trying to block the bill.

Part of the reason similar bills have failed in the past, Kennedy said, is due to an attitude in American society that says, “Some people are going to suffer, probably due to their own self-inflicted misfortunes.” Many Americans seem to believe that the reason people don’t have health care is because they are unemployed or work low-skills jobs. More education is needed to help Americans shift away from a system that links health care to employers, Kennedy said.

Since taking office, Massa said that he has had 35 families come to him for help because a child or a parent was being denied life-saving medical care from insurance companies.

Despite resistance from President Barack Obama and some members of Congress, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan said yesterday he’ll keep fighting for a publicly financed, privately delivered “single payer” health-care system that covers all Americans.

“All who are ready to fight for what they believe is right in health care, raise your hand,” he told more than 150 people at the Making Health Care Happen single-payer seminar at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany. “You’re not gonna get it without a contest. And I’m looking forward to a contest.”

His talk was one of several planned throughout the country. It was partially funded by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and sponsored by Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan, Kentuckians for Single Payer Healthcare and Physicians for a National Health Program.

Conyers, a Democrat serving his 21st term in the House, introduced a bill nine years ago — and every year since — to expand Medicare so that everyone would be covered regardless of employment, income or health. He said the measure, called H.R. 676, has 77 co-sponsors and the endorsement of more than 4,000 physicians.

But many political leaders and constituents oppose such single-payer proposals, with some expressing fear of big government and the rationing of care. And as the debate heats up nationally, even some who support the concept are saying it may not be politically feasible.

According to an Associated Press report, Obama said at a meeting in New Mexico that if he were building a health-care system from the ground up, he would favor a single-payer system. But he currently favors improving the existing system because many people are satisfied with it, he said.

Conyers said some members of Congress have told him privately that his bill will never pass because of corporate forces. “There’s nothing wrong with the bill,” he said they tell him. “We just aren’t ready for it.”

But Conyers disagreed. “Now is the time!” he said to applause.

Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District, who was also at the seminar, said he strongly supports H.R. 676 and Conyers.

“One thing you learn the more you serve with John Conyers is he is always right,” Yarmuth said. “And where health-care reform is concerned, we know he is right.”

But Conyers acknowledged it will be difficult to win more support. In the meantime, he said he would support a compromise bill offering a private insurance option and a strong public option — as long as Congress has a hearing on his bill.

Audience member Edith Kenna of Fort Wayne, Ind., said she doesn’t want a compromise.

Kenna, 62, a licensed clinical social worker, said her entrepreneur son has no insurance. And her 34-year-old daughter, a former kindergarten teacher, is facing the prospect of losing her COBRA insurance after a series of medical problems beginning with severe rheumatoid arthritis that put her in a wheelchair.

As a Conyers aide passed her, Kenna handed him a card with her daughter’s name and said, “She’s gonna die without H.R. 676.”

Costs are growing

About 46 million Americans lack health insurance, and even those who have it often find themselves underinsured. A Courier-Journal investigation last year found that skyrocketing deductibles, premiums and other issues are forcing an increasing number of families to choose between finances and health.

As health-care costs have grown, so has mainstream support for universal health care. Last year the U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution in favor of Conyers’ bill. And according to an April New York Times/CBS News poll, 57 percent of respondents said they’d be willing to pay higher taxes so all Americans could have insurance they can’t lose.

But according to research released last year by consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide, 84 percent of U.S. companies are either opposed to or “not very supportive of” a universal system such as a single-payer system.

And even some groups that favor covering the uninsured don’t want to go as far as single payer. For example, the Kentucky Medical Association, a professional organization for doctors, passed a resolution that keeps insurance companies in the equation.

In the public’s hands

Conyers said he’s unwilling to let anyone hold him or his bill’s supporters back.

“We have to make a decision: Are we going to get rolled or not?” he said.

At the end of the talk, he said he was leaving for a similar gathering in Rochester, N.Y., and asked if a few people wanted to join him. Kenna said she would.

Dr. Rob Stone, an emergency room doctor from Bloomington, Ind., said he sees the need for health-care reform every day. A couple of summers ago, he said, a man in his late 50s came in complaining of chest pain. Stone said the man told him that the pain had been worse two weeks earlier, but he didn’t see a doctor.

“I don’t have insurance,” Stone recalled him saying. “I was worried about the bill.” As a result, a piece of his heart had died.

Conyers said he’s heard many such stories but added that the future of U.S. health care is in the people’s hands.

“What kind of health-care bill are we gonna get? I’m here to predict you get the kind you deserve, not the kind you oughta have, not the kind you want,” he said. “It all depends on you.”

As the nation grapples with improving the health care system and making it more affordable, a contingent of people believe the answer is a single-payer system.

But advocates worry that their idea is being sidelined.

Representatives of the single-payer movement were initially locked-out of health care summit called by President Barack Obama earlier this month — until supporters raised a ruckus.

“I think mainstream wisdom in Washington is reform that is not built on the private health insurance industry will not pass,” said Dr. Andrew Coates, an Albany doctor who is secretary of the Capital District Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Plan. “They do not want a knock-down, drag-out fight.”

Under a single-payer system, private doctors and hospitals deliver health care but the bill is paid by the government. It’s also known as “Medicare for all.”

Single-payer advocates will host a forum on Sunday at the Westminster Presbyterian Church to explain the system to people who are not familiar with it. U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, who has proposed a single-payer bill in Congress, will speak along with U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, of Amsterdam, who signed on as a co-sponsor to his fellow Democrat’s bill.

Conyers, who eventually attended Obama’s health summit, said he presumes the late invitation was due to the administration’s reluctance to give his bill prominence.

A single-payer system would eliminate the need for private health insurance and potentially wipe out the industry.

“The insurance lobby is the one that has kept us from a single-payer system for the last three or four generations,” Conyers said in a telephone interview.

The Presbyterian Church USA has decided that a single-payer system is the best option for health reform, and is hosting 10 forums around the country to educate people about it.

Single-payer “streamlines what is the biggest waste in the system, which is the incredible (duplication) of effort and time doctors and practitioners spend just following the paper trail,” said the Rev. Cass Shaw.

Shaw is leader of the Albany Presbytery, which represents 73 congregations and 8,000 Presbyterians in the Capital Region.

In addition to the congressmen, the forum will have a panel of faith leaders from churches, mosques and synagogues in the area.

“For us, it’s a religious issue as well as a civic issue,” Shaw said.

Sunday’s free forum will be from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 262 State St., Albany. Call 434-7371 for more information.

Often we hear about how education (especially higher education) is crucial for economic development and job creation.

Rarely do we get any credible specifics about how this actually works, even from our knowledgeable colleges and universities. In fact, can our colleges and universities demonstrate that they truly are sending out a significant percentage of students who are starting small businesses — the heart and soul of economic development these days — and creating good jobs?

Students and parents cannot afford continual, well-above-inflation tuition and fees increases, and we know that our colleges and universities certainly want to use more existing, as well as new, money for higher education. So what do we do?

Since the departing Bush Administration and the incoming Obama Administration are all about stimulus packages, what about this kind of stimulus: single-payer national health care — see U.S. Rep. John Conyers’ bill, H.R. 676, which now has over 70 supporters.

Yes, that’s right, Medicare for everyone! Do our senior citizens think they are being “socialized” to death?

Big business and small business, unions and nurses, around 50 percent of doctors, and a clear majority of Americans are now ready and are calling for a single-payer health care system which already exists in all the advanced democratic countries).

The cost savings to our businesses and colleges/universities would immediately improve their financial situation, as well as improve our global competitiveness. The automobile industry would get significant relief without any loans or bail-outs. Why our colleges/universities might even be able to decrease tuition and fees a bit, given the financial savings windfall!

By removing the gouging middleman, namely the costly health insurance industry, by ending for-profit health care, and by significantly cutting administrative costs, we can wring the waste and inefficiency out of our present failing system and save up to $300 billion a year.

Accordingly, Americans need not fear huge tax increases to cover such a national health-care system. At the present time, 5 percent to 15 percent annual health-care cost increases (not found in any other country) are unsustainable.

These exorbitant health-care cost increases prevent wage and salary increases that at least keep up with inflation. Fifty percent of Americans in bankruptcy or foreclosure say health-care debt is their primary problem. Forty percent of households today are financially stressed by out-of-pocket health-care expenses.

This is where Americans need real relief, as opposed to sending us checks in the mail or more tax cuts that do not jump start the economy and only put a huge debt burden on future generations.

Continue reading the full article.