Baucus to Meet with Single Payer Advocates
Guess who’s coming to dinner.
After months of proclaiming that single payer is off the table, Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) has invited five key single payer advocates to meet with him in Washington, D.C. this week.
On Wednesday June 3, Senator Baucus will meet with Dr. David Himmelstein, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), Dr. Marcia Angell, Senior Lecturer, Harvard Medical School and former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Oliver Fein, Associate Dean, Cornell Weill Medical School, and President of PNHP, Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association, and Geri Jenkins, president of California Nurses Association.
“Bowing to mounting pressure from single payer advocates around the nation, Senator Baucus has asked to meet with some representatives of the single payer movement,” Dr. Himmelstein said. “It’s the thirteen people who braved arrest at Senate Finance Committee hearing, the hundreds of single payer supporters who’ve shadowed Senator Baucus in his home state of Montana, and the thousands who have put pressure other members of Congress who have created this opening. We have no illusions that our discussions alone will persuade Senator Baucus to back a single payer bill. But the meeting is a clear indication that demonstrations and activism can move even our money-corrupted political culture.”
According to a recent analysis by the public interest group Consumer Watchdog, Senator Baucus, the leading architect of health reform in the Congress, has received more campaign contributions from the health insurance and pharmaceutical corporations than any other current Democratic member of the House or Senate.
According to the report, Senator Baucus received $183,750 from health insurance companies and $229,020 from drug companies in the last two election cycles.
During three recent Senate Finance Committee hearings on health care reform, Baucus invited 41 people to testify — not one of which was a single payer advocate.
This despite the fact that recent polls show that single payer is supported by a majority of Americans, doctors and health economists.
Baucus has been asked repeatedly in recent months to allow a single payer advocate to testify.
He has steadfastly refused.
“We’re keeping our eyes on the prize — enactment of a single payer, everybody in, nobody out, free choice of doctor and hospital health insurance system in the United States,” said Russell Mokhiber of Single Payer Action. “We won’t let up until single payer becomes a reality. And sooner or later single payer will become a reality because it’s the only system that is financially viable, that will cover all Americans, and that will end the nightmare of 60 Americans dying every day from lack of health insurance.”
“Senator Baucus has charged us with ‘disruption of Congress,’” said Mokhiber, who is one of thirteen citizens Baucus had arrested for demanding that single payer advocates be given a seat at the table. “But we are charging Baucus with corruption of Congress. We think we have a stronger case. And we hope to win the court case, break through the corrupt barriers in Congress and secure single payer for the American people.”
The next court date for the Baucus 13 is scheduled for June 22 before D.C. Superior Court Judge Harold L. Cushenberry.
I do not understand the following:
1. WHY don’t unions MOBILIZE and DEMONSTRATE for a national health plan? All I’ve seen is that they ‘endorse’ it.
2. WHY DOESN’T ANYONE GIVE THE DICTIONARY DEFINITION FOR RACKETEERING.
Certainly, I believe Max Baucus ‘fits’ the definition; he should be charged under the RICO laws of the U.S. If he’s not a racketeer, I cannot imagine who is.
3. Lastly, WHERE ARE THOSE SENATORS AND CONGRESSMEN…WHEN PEOPLE ARE DEMONSTRATING IN FAVOR OF A NATIONAL HEALTH PLAN. The Kennedys ‘say’ they want one—WHERE ARE THEY?
Why DON’T SMALL BUSINESS, LARGE BUSINESS, UAW, AFL-CIO, SEIU, ALL OTHER UNIONS, AND STUDENTS … INDEED ANYONE BETWEEN THE AGES OF 18-64 WHO IN THIS COUNTRY BELIEVE IN A NATIONAL HEALTH CARE OPTION…SPEAK UP AND DEMAND WITH CIVIL DISOBEDEANCE…THAT WE RID OURSELVES OF THE VERMIN WHO HAVE BEEN KILLING US WHILE ENRICHING THEMSELVES SINCE NIXON!!
DOWN WITH BAUCUS….CHARGE HIM WITH RACKETEERING!!
The Best Kept Secret in Washington.
This is what the Politicians don’t want the American People to know.
That ALL of them, including President Obama and the Supreme Court.
Have Government Financed/Paid for Health Care. YES, a Single Payer.
ALL of them know excactly how well and great a Single Payer works.
What are they all doing instead is— Using Scare Tactics and Lie to Cofuse teh American People.
The American People have to DEMAND, to have the very SAME Health Care as ALL of them enjoy/have.
ALL of them enjoy.
The BAUCUS 13 ARE HEROS…
UNLIKE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WHO TAKE THE HEALTHCARE WE PAY FOR — THEN DENY US THE SAME PRIVILEDGE. THEY’RE BUSY EATING 2.00 LOBSTER IN CONGRESSIONAL DINING ROOMS AND HIDING IN THE WEEDS.
MAX BAUCUS US A CRIMINAL/RACKETEER; WE SAY CHARGE HIM AND HIS INSURANCE PALS UNDER THE UNITED STATES RACKETEERING LAWS!! (RICO)
IF ANYONE DOUBTS THAT MAX BAUCUS IS A CRIMINAL/RACKETEER–LOOK IN THE DICTIONARY (BETTER YET..MORE THAN ONE DICTIONARY) AND SEE THE DEFINITION OF THE TERM!!
ARREST MAX BAUCUS!
Here is definitely an region that may well be of guide to you!
http://www.usguccioutlet.org