Why Single Payer Advocacy Matters Now More Than Ever
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bobgo...@bellsouth.net
Aug 5, 2009, 1:37:49 PM8/5/09
to Talking Stick
Two things we need to ask/demand that our reps do are:
1. Support the Weiner proposal to substitute single-payer for the present House plan; and, if the Weiner proposal does not pass,
2. Make sure the Kucinich amendment, which would guarantee states the right to create their own single-payer plans, is in whatever bill pases, if any.
************************
Why Single Payer Advocacy Matters Now More Than Ever
by John Nichols
The Nation.com - posted Aug. 04, 2009 @ 08:00am
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/458046/why_single_payer_advocacy_matters_
now_more_than_ever
How should serious supporters of healthcare reform
spend the month of August?
Not by getting trapped in the narrow "debate" between
"party of no" Republicans who favor no reform at all,
and Blue Dog Democrats, whose "reform" is to make a bad
system worse.
And not by campaigning for "buzz words - "public
option," "employer mandates" - or whatever President
Obama or Speaker Pelosi happen to favor this week.
There will be plenty of advertising and organizing to
that end, including a $15 million expenditure by the
AFL-CIO.
Americans who want to tip the debate in the most
progressive direction should take advantage an opening
provided at the last minute during negotiations to get
a bill approved by the House Energy and Commerce
Committee.
And they should do so by advocating even more
aggressively for single-payer health care.
One of the many side deals that House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi, D-California, and Energy and Commerce chair
Henry Waxman, D-California, had to cut to get the votes
they needed for the compromise reform measure that was
approved before the House broke for its August recess
will allow a floor vote on real reform.
Waxman sidetracked a move by New York Congressman
Anthony Weiner to replace his proposal with a single-
payer plan by agreeing - with Pelosi's approval - to
schedule a vote by the full House on the plan to
replace the current for-profit system with a Medicare-
style plan that covers all Americans and controls
costs.
"A lot of members on our committee want a vote on
that," Waxman, a California Democrat who has worked
closely with the Speaker to advance a moderate reform
agenda, said of single-payer. "I believe their wishes
will be accommodated."
Weiner is declaring a sort of victory, saying that:
"Single-payer is a better plan and now it is on center
stage. Americans have a clear choice. Their Member of
Congress will have a simpler, less expensive and
smarter bill to choose. I am thrilled that the Speaker
is giving us that choice."
Of course, getting a September vote on single-payer
does not mean that single-payer will get the votes.
With the Obama administration and congressional leaders
determined to compromise rather than fight, it is
unlikely in the extreme that the current debate will
end with the adoption of a single-payer plan. Even if
the House approved one, it would still face a fight in
the Senate.
But just as Republicans are willing to just say "no" to
any reform, progressives should just say "yes" to real
reform.
Campaigning for single-payer in August - by demanding
that members of the House agree to support such a plan
when it comes up for a vote, and by urging senators to
schedule and support a similar vote in their chamber -
is the best was to assure that whatever reform
ultimately comes will err on the side of Americans who
need healthcare rather than insurance companies that
would deny them that care.
At the very least, single-payer advocacy should
preserve an amendment sponsored by Congressman Dennis
Kucinich, D-Ohio, which would allow states to
experiment with single-payer programs even if the
federal government refuses to do so. That's a
significant matter, since Canada's national health care
program began with single-payer experiments at the
provincial level.
The worst mistake that progressives could make in
August would be to put their time and energy into
getting members of Congress to agree to back a barely-
acceptable compromise that could end up being
unacceptable by the time the lobbyists and their
political handmaidens finish with it.
Better to get representatives and senators to commit to
back single-payer bills.
That does not prevent them from ultimately agreeing to
compromise measures.
But it gets them to begin on the side of real reform,
and lessens the likelihood that the eventual deals will
be as bad as the schemes that the Blue Dogs tried to
impose before the break.
Perhaps just as importantly, a strong vote for single-
payer will remind the Obama administration that the
president was right when he said six years ago that
single-payer was the right response to the mess that
private insurers and their allies have made of our
healthcare system.
Groups that back single-payer are gearing up for August
activism.
Keep track of the most important advocacy on the
healthcare issue by following the work of Physicians
for a National Health Program at www.pnhp.org, the
California Nurses Association at
http://www.pdamerica.org.
Activist David Swanson is suggesting that this should
be "Single-Payer Summer."
Swanson's right.
Only if Americans who favor real reform make this
"Single-Payer Summer" will we have anything worth
considering in the fall.
[John Nichols writes about politics for The Nation
magazine as its Washington correspondent. He is a
contributing writer for The Progressive and In These
Times and the associate editor of the Capital Times,
the daily newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin. His articles
have appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune
and dozens of other newspapers. ]
by John Nichols
The Nation.com - posted Aug. 04, 2009 @ 08:00am
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/458046/why_single_payer_advocacy_matters_
now_more_than_ever
How should serious supporters of healthcare reform
spend the month of August?
Not by getting trapped in the narrow "debate" between
"party of no" Republicans who favor no reform at all,
and Blue Dog Democrats, whose "reform" is to make a bad
system worse.
And not by campaigning for "buzz words - "public
option," "employer mandates" - or whatever President
Obama or Speaker Pelosi happen to favor this week.
There will be plenty of advertising and organizing to
that end, including a $15 million expenditure by the
AFL-CIO.
Americans who want to tip the debate in the most
progressive direction should take advantage an opening
provided at the last minute during negotiations to get
a bill approved by the House Energy and Commerce
Committee.
And they should do so by advocating even more
aggressively for single-payer health care.
One of the many side deals that House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi, D-California, and Energy and Commerce chair
Henry Waxman, D-California, had to cut to get the votes
they needed for the compromise reform measure that was
approved before the House broke for its August recess
will allow a floor vote on real reform.
Waxman sidetracked a move by New York Congressman
Anthony Weiner to replace his proposal with a single-
payer plan by agreeing - with Pelosi's approval - to
schedule a vote by the full House on the plan to
replace the current for-profit system with a Medicare-
style plan that covers all Americans and controls
costs.
"A lot of members on our committee want a vote on
that," Waxman, a California Democrat who has worked
closely with the Speaker to advance a moderate reform
agenda, said of single-payer. "I believe their wishes
will be accommodated."
Weiner is declaring a sort of victory, saying that:
"Single-payer is a better plan and now it is on center
stage. Americans have a clear choice. Their Member of
Congress will have a simpler, less expensive and
smarter bill to choose. I am thrilled that the Speaker
is giving us that choice."
Of course, getting a September vote on single-payer
does not mean that single-payer will get the votes.
With the Obama administration and congressional leaders
determined to compromise rather than fight, it is
unlikely in the extreme that the current debate will
end with the adoption of a single-payer plan. Even if
the House approved one, it would still face a fight in
the Senate.
But just as Republicans are willing to just say "no" to
any reform, progressives should just say "yes" to real
reform.
Campaigning for single-payer in August - by demanding
that members of the House agree to support such a plan
when it comes up for a vote, and by urging senators to
schedule and support a similar vote in their chamber -
is the best was to assure that whatever reform
ultimately comes will err on the side of Americans who
need healthcare rather than insurance companies that
would deny them that care.
At the very least, single-payer advocacy should
preserve an amendment sponsored by Congressman Dennis
Kucinich, D-Ohio, which would allow states to
experiment with single-payer programs even if the
federal government refuses to do so. That's a
significant matter, since Canada's national health care
program began with single-payer experiments at the
provincial level.
The worst mistake that progressives could make in
August would be to put their time and energy into
getting members of Congress to agree to back a barely-
acceptable compromise that could end up being
unacceptable by the time the lobbyists and their
political handmaidens finish with it.
Better to get representatives and senators to commit to
back single-payer bills.
That does not prevent them from ultimately agreeing to
compromise measures.
But it gets them to begin on the side of real reform,
and lessens the likelihood that the eventual deals will
be as bad as the schemes that the Blue Dogs tried to
impose before the break.
Perhaps just as importantly, a strong vote for single-
payer will remind the Obama administration that the
president was right when he said six years ago that
single-payer was the right response to the mess that
private insurers and their allies have made of our
healthcare system.
Groups that back single-payer are gearing up for August
activism.
Keep track of the most important advocacy on the
healthcare issue by following the work of Physicians
for a National Health Program at www.pnhp.org, the
California Nurses Association at
http://www.pdamerica.org.
Activist David Swanson is suggesting that this should
be "Single-Payer Summer."
Swanson's right.
Only if Americans who favor real reform make this
"Single-Payer Summer" will we have anything worth
considering in the fall.
[John Nichols writes about politics for The Nation
magazine as its Washington correspondent. He is a
contributing writer for The Progressive and In These
Times and the associate editor of the Capital Times,
the daily newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin. His articles
have appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune
and dozens of other newspapers. ]
talkingsticknews
Aug 5, 2009, 9:18:04 PM8/5/09
to Talking Stick News
This confused person's response:
There are so many options for action by progressives and frankly so
little information that I find it frustrating and am about to decide
to hope nothing passes.
I do favor a single payer plan and believe that will come to pass
likely sooner than later. I fear any of these hermaphrodite bills
satisfactory to conservatives will just prolong the depression and
speed failures in the delivery system. but could paradoxically speed
single payer.
Of course of we can get a bill written and information on content
there is some chance that could change.
That said I am very reluctant to sign on to a lot of effort for that
now because, just as Kucinich's presidential campaigns were doomed
this is doomed for this year and I can't see how it would advance the
cause for later passage.
I am really disappointed in the Obama approach so far.
As a southerner I shudder at "states rights." I do recognize the
situation for the poor is tragic but states with a historically large
poor population don't tend to support universal plans.
Lorraine
On Aug 5, 1:37 pm, bobgoodm...@bellsouth.net wrote:
> Two things we need to ask/demand that our reps do are:
>
> 1. Support the Weiner proposal to substitute single-payer for the present House plan; and, if the Weiner proposal does not pass,
> 2. Make sure the Kucinich amendment, which would guarantee states the right to create their own single-payer plans, is in whatever bill pases, if any.
>
> ************************
> Why Single Payer Advocacy Matters Now More Than Ever
>
> by John Nichols
>
> The Nation.com - posted Aug. 04, 2009 @ 08:00amhttp://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/458046/why_single_payer_advoca...
There are so many options for action by progressives and frankly so
little information that I find it frustrating and am about to decide
to hope nothing passes.
I do favor a single payer plan and believe that will come to pass
likely sooner than later. I fear any of these hermaphrodite bills
satisfactory to conservatives will just prolong the depression and
speed failures in the delivery system. but could paradoxically speed
single payer.
Of course of we can get a bill written and information on content
there is some chance that could change.
That said I am very reluctant to sign on to a lot of effort for that
now because, just as Kucinich's presidential campaigns were doomed
this is doomed for this year and I can't see how it would advance the
cause for later passage.
I am really disappointed in the Obama approach so far.
As a southerner I shudder at "states rights." I do recognize the
situation for the poor is tragic but states with a historically large
poor population don't tend to support universal plans.
Lorraine
On Aug 5, 1:37 pm, bobgoodm...@bellsouth.net wrote:
> Two things we need to ask/demand that our reps do are:
>
> 1. Support the Weiner proposal to substitute single-payer for the present House plan; and, if the Weiner proposal does not pass,
> 2. Make sure the Kucinich amendment, which would guarantee states the right to create their own single-payer plans, is in whatever bill pases, if any.
>
> ************************
> Why Single Payer Advocacy Matters Now More Than Ever
>
> by John Nichols
>
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