Today: Tell ABC-TV to put Single-Payer on the Table

ABC News is presenting a full day of in-depth of coverage on President Barack Obama’s healthcare proposal today, Wednesday, June 24, 10pm EST. This includes an hour-long Primetime “town hall” discussion featuring Obama and questions from audience members.

The ABC press release says that the town hall discussion will be moderated by Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and ABC medical editor Dr. Timothy Johnson. In the past, Johnson has provided insightful coverage of single-payer, debunking myths and explaining its broad support and benefits.

IMMEDIATE ACTION: Urge ABC and Dr. Tim Johnson to thoroughly discuss the issue of single-payer.

CONTACT: Please use this form from ABC News Primetime and Write Your Views.

17 Comments

  1. Deborah Lusignan on June 24, 2009 at 1:30 pm

    Single Payer needs to be put on the table and included in the debate. Thus far, the President has been allowed to dismiss the 14,000 US physicians who stand for a single payer system (physicians for a National Health Program)…nurse’s organizations across the country also support single payer and yet, the people who actually provide care are dismissed. The health care lobby sits at the table to dictate our health reform and physicians and nurses are ARRESTED in Congress for just trying to get mere representation of a single payer plan.

    Right now, it appears that the goal of the health insurance ‘reform’ is to craft legislation that ensures that health insurance companies may continue to profit off our sickness. Yet, health care companies provide nothing. They make their money by denying care. Their bottom line is incompatible with providing equal and universal coverage to all. We have lost our way as a country when the healthcare of our citizens is allowed to be compromised for profit and greed.

    NOT FOR PROFIT health coverage is something all Americans can agree upon.

    I make this prediction – if Obama & the dems refuse to provide real health reform now and continue to serve the health insurance companies over the people, they will be known as the Democratic Party that sparked the third party revolution.

    Change you can believe in? More like change as a mask for the status quo.

    It is sickening.



  2. Laurel C B Stranaghan on June 24, 2009 at 2:41 pm

    My citizenship is dual Canadian/American.
    I am a Registered Nurse and I support HR 676, single payer.
    I was born, raised, educated and raised my family in Canada for 46 years. I am practising now and have practiced in the U. S. for the past 17 years.
    My impression of the American health care system has not changed since Day 1.
    I never fail to be amazed at the incredible squandering waste I see at every level and at every turn. I’m appalled at the ubequitous fraud I encounter daily. I continue to be dumbfounded that the United States of America touts itself as the most influential industrialized modern and democratic nation in the world while it fails to provide for the health of it’s people. The state of health care in this nation is a national embarrassment.
    “Washington” needs to suck it upand find the guts to reveal the truth to ‘the people’, that the only fiscally realistic and socially responsible solution to providing affordable equal access to quality health care for every citizen is the Single Payer System, such as described in HR 676. The truth is usually pretty simple.
    PLEASE HAVE A FULL AND FRANK DISCUSSION ABOUT SINGLE PAYER.
    PLEASE URGE OUR LEGISLATORS TO ANSWER TO WHY THE SINGLE PAYER OPTION HAS NOT BEEN SCORED AND THE RESULTS REVEALED TO US ALL.

    May 21 Note to Congressmen
    I have a friend.
    She is a registered nurse and a single parent of two teenage daughters. They, through circumstances beyond their control, have health challenges which are complex though treatable and manageable and which, if not managed, will lead to enormous personal losses in quality of life and societal losses as well.
    Last year my friend had better insurance than this year. They got by. It wasn’t optimal care but they got by.
    This year my friend’s health insurance changed. It has a huge deductible – $5,000 before any coverage starts and this additional expense has become a barrier to care. My friend’s health has begun to suffer permanent, life changing deterioration. Her daughter’s needs are being put first, although she will not be getting the therapy which might be key to enabling her to become a well educated taxpaying adult citizen.
    This is a preventable tragedy.
    This will cost our country in dollars and lost productivity as well as affecting our social fabric.
    I believe it is your sworn duty as elected officials to put the good of the nation foremost.
    The responsible and PATRIOTIC thing to do is to educate the public, put the lies of the industrormedical complex to rest with the truth and pass HR 676.
    Do due diligence at pnhp.org.

    CANADIAN EXPERIENCE AS HEALTHCARE PRACTITIONER AND CONSUMER
    In any health care system one will find certain legitimate complaints.
    In a hospital serving approx. 25K people, the ER waiting room has about 12 chairs. In about 46 years I never once saw them all full.
    The longest I or my family members ever had to wait to be seen was 20 minutes and that included the paperwork and the first set of vital signs! Some Canadians may complain, but I consider the majority of those to be a bit like ‘the spoiled children’.



  3. Raven Myrick-Kasprzak on June 24, 2009 at 3:26 pm

    I want one payer HR 676 to be on the table for health care for all not just who can afford it. I wish that he would stand up to big business and take care of the people of the USA we need a little bail out as he as given big business our tax dollars, I say now it’s our turn to get some of our money. Health care is a human right not just for the people that have insurance. Someone needs to stand up for the poor and for all people suffering. We are only as strong as our weakest link.



  4. JoAnn Anglin on June 24, 2009 at 4:23 pm

    Single-Payer coverage for all in the USA is dearly required. This must not be left in the hands of employers, the AMA, and the Insurance companies. Our current system is both ineffective and sinfully expensive. We are about the worst in the western world in basic public health measures. Our health care system needs to be replaced, not ‘fixed.’



  5. Rosalie Ramsden on June 24, 2009 at 6:36 pm

    Please discuss and explain the single payer plan. There has been so little discussion and so much misinformation re single payer that I feel sure once Americans find out what a good plan it is they will gladly support it.



  6. Gayle Henry on June 24, 2009 at 8:18 pm

    * SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE IS NOT A NEW IDEA! In fact it’s a 100 year old IDEA. The Progressive Party has been fighting for Single Payer Health Care since their 1912 Chicago Convention.
    * About 5 years ago the U.S. ranked 29th worldwide in Citizen Health Care. More recently, we have been ranked 43rd. worldwide in Citizen Health Care.
    * Given these statistics, I suggest that EVERYDAY we all CALL WASHINGTON, DC. Call President Obama, Your Senators & Your Representative tell them we do not want 1 or 2 HEALTH CARE BAND AIDS…”Single Payer Comes IN! OR THEY GO OUT!” PERIOD!



    • Eliza Jane Dodd on July 2, 2009 at 2:17 pm

      Thats right ! I agree with you I always write CONGRESS -PEOPLE I am a Health Care VOTER ! I am Not any longer a Rep or a DEM ..I am a HEALTH CARE HR 676 Universal Health care Voter ! And will be till they put me in my grave !



  7. Harry Peerce on June 26, 2009 at 11:05 am

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRncvhQOpHE&feature=related

    Hi everyone,
    These three Stiller and Meara spots for single-payer national health insurance were recorded during the Clinton administration. They didn’t run because they didn’t get the ok to be declared Public Service Announcements. I wrote them and got them produced as a joint effort of the entertainment unions (and everyone – actors, producers, writers, studio, etc. – worked for free).

    The Congressional Switchboard phone number remains the same. Please use it! Go to http://www.pnhp.org to find the list of cosponsors of HR 676, Rep. Conyers’ single-payer bill. If your Congressperson is not a cosponsor please get them to sign onto the bill. The number of cosponsors has an effect on how quickly – or whether – legislation moves forward. If your Congressperson IS a cosponsor, call and thank them and tell them you expect this legislation to move to the floor for debate. Please folks, there’s no time to lose. Single Payer is the only way to make the American Health Care system work.

    Many thanks,
    Harry

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRncvhQOpHE&feature=related

    Please forward to anyone you know who’s interested in this issue.



  8. Tami Moshier on June 28, 2009 at 12:02 pm

    Gayle Henry says it all. “Single Payer Comes in, or THEY GO OUT!” PERIOD! What else need to be said? Enough is enough!



  9. Dianna J. Vasquez on June 29, 2009 at 4:19 am

    IT IS TIME THAT WE THE PEOPLE HAD HEALTHCARE, SINGLE PAYER IS THE BEST WAY.
    THE FEDERAL EMPLOYES HAVE SINGLE PAYER, OFF OUR BACKS.
    IF CONGRESS AND THE SENATE, LIKE THEIR HEALTH CARE, WHY IS IT NOT GOOD FOR US?
    IF THEY DO NOT WANT TO GIVE US SINGLE PAYER, THEN WHY DON’T WE BAN TOGETHER AND TAKE THEIR HEALTH CARE AWAY FROM THEM, LET THEM PAY FOR THEIR OWN HEALTH CARE. WE NEED TO STOP LETTING THEM STAY IN POWER FOR EVER, THEN THEY WILL LISTEN TO US.



  10. John Barker on June 29, 2009 at 9:34 pm

    I want ABC and Dr Tim Johnson to thoroughly discuss single payer HR676 on the Wed. June 24 healthcare discussion. We hear that cost is a major problem with healthcare reform. Congress, Obama and media analysts are in a dither about how to pay for healthcare reform. We already pay for it via outrageous for profit insurance premiums and through increased costs of goods and services that result from employer based healthcare. Employers pass the cost on to consumers, WE PAY. Rarely mentioned are the hidden costs of human suffering and death that result from coverage denied. What is the logic behind paying for profit insurance company middlemen who contribute nothing to healthcare?

    The costs of healthcare will not begin to decline until we stop feeding the for profit insurance company bureaucracy. These costs are substantial. It’s common for health insurance premiums to be $800/month with high deductibles. For the average family with $50,000 income, insurance premiums of $10,000 – $16,000 per year represent 20% – 32% of their income, which is most likely more than their income taxes! Economists say that HR676 would lower those costs to 5% – 10% of income and is comprehensive. What is difficult to understand that in lieu of useless opressive for profit insurance premiums we would pay a health tax that is a fraction of the cost. Obama, please explain that.

    I would like to see the cost comparisons of single payer like those above and the current system discussed. Why is single payer off the table when it is clearly in the best medical and economic interests of patients and the country?



  11. Albert Halac on July 1, 2009 at 8:25 pm

    I support President Obama and a Single-Payer health care system.



  12. Guest on April 2, 2013 at 10:52 am

    WE NEED SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE NOW!!!! THE PRIVATE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IS A DISASTER!!! TIRED OF MY TAXES PAYING FOR FEDERAL EMPLOYEES, THE POOR, PEOPLE IN PRISON, POLITICIANS, BUT I CANNOT AFFORD A PRIVATE PLAN FOR MYSELF! THIS CURRENT HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IS SHAMEFUL!!!!! OUR AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE PAYING THE DEAREST PRICE FOR THIS HEALTHCARE NIGHTMARE, IT IS NOT ONLY BANKRUPTING THEM, IT IS KILLING THEM!!!!!



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  14. Rob on July 16, 2013 at 10:42 am

    WE HAVE SINGLE-PAYER IN THIS COUNTRY! IT’S JUST ONLY FOR “SOME” TO GET IT! POLITICIANS, GOVT. LEADERS, STATE WORKERS, PRISONERS, POOR, THOSE ON MEDICARE! THEY ALL ENJOY SINGLE PAYER!!!!! WHY NOT FOR ALL???? WHY SHOULD THEY GET TO HAVE IT?? WHY NOT MAKE THEM PAY FOR THEIR OWN HEALTHCARE?? WHY SHOULD MY TAXES PAY FOR THEM TO GET IT??? IT MAKES NO SENSE!!! WHAT A SHAM!! HOW DISFUNCTIONAL! AMERICANS NEED TO DEMAND TO GET THE SAME SINGLE PAYER THESE “SELECT CITIZENS” GET TO ENJOY! WHAT A JOKE THIS HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IS!



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