Single-Payer Actions Planned in over Fifty Cities

Activists of every stripe take to the streets to support single-payer

As the Obama administration calls for health reform to be done this year, people in support of improved Medicare for all, a single-payer national health system, take to the streets in over 50 cities around May 30th. Single-payer advocates support the removal of for-profit insurers from providing basic health care, which would create enough savings, an estimated $400 billion a year, to guarantee health care to all. The Obama administration has repeatedly stated that single-payer is not being considered as an option for reform.

Town hall meetings, protests at insurance companies, rallies in state capitols, and vigils in memory of the 22,000 people who die each year because they lack health insurance will be taking place across the country. Members of Healthcare-NOW!, Progressive Democrats of America, the California Nurses Association, Physicians for a National Health Program, and the Green Party have largely mobilized around the day of action under the umbrella of the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care, a coalition of national organizations supporting national single-payer legislation.

A 2008 study shows 59 percent of U.S. physicians now favor government legislation to establish national health insurance. This alongside a recent CBS Poll showing 59 percent of Americans in favor of government-provided national health insurance reflects the growing support for single-payer. Supporters are angered as leading advocates supporting this solution are left out of the national debate on health reform.

Earlier this month, a total of 13 people, physicians, nurses and activists, were arrested for standing up in the Senate Finance Committee roundtable on health and demanding single-payer be considered. There have been 41 witnesses in the Senate Finance Committee discussions on health reform, without one single-payer advocate.

“A growing majority of physicians support a national health program because they cannot practice quality medicine until private insurers are removed from interfering in medical decisions and denying needed care. Health care providers are now willing to engage in acts of civil disobedience in order to show that health care reform is about improving patients’ health, not bailing out insurers. Health care is the civil rights issue of this decade,” states Dr. Margaret Flowers, one of the physicians arrested in the Senate Finance Committee.

“Advocates for single-payer represent the marginalized majority. The people deserve a fair hearing on health care reform. The nationwide day of actions shows that single-payer advocates refuse to be silent.” states Katie Robbins, Assistant Coordinator, Healthcare-NOW!

As of yet, a single-payer system is the only plan that would be truly universal and guaranteed to contain sky rocketing health care costs. Many of the best health care systems in the world are single-payer systems. In addition to saving lives, it would end bankruptcies caused by medical debt and remove financial barriers to care.

“The single-payer solution meets President Obama’s three core principles,” said Tim Carpenter the national director of Progressive Democrats of America. “It would reduce costs, guarantee choice, and ensure all Americans have quality, affordable health care; it provides far more in savings than any other option being considered.”

HR 676, the National Health Care Act, currently has 77 Congressional cosponsors in the 111th Congress.

To see the full list of participating cities, please visit – http://www.healthcare-now.org/campaigns/may-30th-day-of-action/

4 Comments

  1. Eliza Jane Dodd on May 30, 2009 at 12:38 pm

    Hey everyone , Again I went to the mybarackobama.com …on the Phone call everyone was suspose to in on and ya know what you should read what people said They couldnt get the call or they where disconnected ..and then I made a post and they will not post it .I copied the words of Barack Obama from the 2003 speech he made and my subject was HR676 Now stop Procrastinating ! And they will not post it .The Barack Obama web sites are full of bulloney and are a Big Waste of time .We arent getting any-where with Barack Obama .It is a game to PROCRASTINATE ! To Put us all off and to delay health care reform .
    One sure way to know if we will get the Universal Health Care is to watch the Health Industries STOCK Prices everyday and the Pharm co Stock .Why do I say this ?
    Last month in the HEAT of this Single Payer in Washington …the same time as the Mad Max Baucus Showdown …my TV News Here in FTWORTH had a Financial Advisor on the show EVENING NEWS …to tell people how to get back the money they LOST in the Market …He said to BUY HEALTH CARE STOCKS and PHARM / Drug co stocks …many kinds …not just one ….And that week ALL the Stock went SKY HIGH that WEEK all of the Co.’s !!!
    I am no college graduate and I knew …my heart sunk …i knew we ant getting health care …these MEDIA people Know and these STOCK BROKERS Know Whats UP with our Gov. and the people who pay the Bills …the people who Donate money …buy people off ….
    We NEED a PAPER PETITION like a CENSUS to HAND in Person to Barack Obama everyone who wants this HR676 Universal Health Care ..
    it is like I am living a nightmare …WHY? Because every person I have talked to about the HR676 and all the papers I given out EVERY person Wants it …and have never heard of it …I say sign the Petitions online …
    Now that I think about it maybe people arent hooked up to a computer …things are tough out here paying bills …I myself have cut off my satelite and cancelled my Dallas News Paper …But I couldnt do with out my computer …I dont know what I would do ? maybe stay at the library ..But I did have the number to the White House on all the Papers I have handed out on the HR 676 ..and I would tell people to please call the White House and not once but several times a day and call and email their congress people ..
    I had to tell all you this beacuse I dont know if you all are aware of the BOGUS WEB SITES that the White House has ??? And what a total waste of time it is .Something BIG needs to happen and I think it is a LONG PAPER PETITION TO THE PRESIDENT something Barack Obama can not deny !



  2. MOCKBADOC on June 3, 2009 at 11:09 pm

    I don’t get it. I thought Barack Obama was the Hope and Change you guys had been waiting for. Don’t tell me that after all that beautiful Marxist rhetoric he turned out to be just one more self-interested politician! Pity.

    Yeah, this government that won’t even listen to you guys really DOES seem like the perfect vessel to ensure responsive health care, huh?

    Are any of you starting to get the picture? Washington doesn’t care about sick people, or you, or me, or anything else besides consolidating its power at our expense. Giving them control over anything, especially something as important as health care, is an invitation for disaster.

    Wise up.
    MOCKBADOC.



  3. charles allen on June 7, 2009 at 11:31 am

    I’m a 65 year old retired teacher on a fixed income. On Friday I went to the district office to pay my monthly health care premium of $920.06 only to find out that my premiums will soon increase to $1019.91. This is a 10.9%n increase. Death, taxes, and double digit increases in health insurance premiums are the only certainties in the United States.



  4. Kate on June 7, 2009 at 7:12 pm

    Well, I am on Medicare and they doctors are low quality. Wait to you become old or severely disabled and become a Medicare beneficiary or worse, if you have to rely on Medicaid. You will be screaming for no healthcare at all. These low quality clinics are killing us off to save a few bucks, but it is the waste, not the beneficiaries that are doing harm. What ever happened to quality doctors? Before a student goes into medical school, they ask them why they want to become doctors…because if it is to be rich, find another career. The thing is, doctors are just as greedy and corrupt as policy makers in Washington. It won’t matter what happens, any advancement toward healthcare for all, or eliminating healthcare for all, will be done at our own peril.