|
.jpg)
Recent Similar Articleshealth care: |
Obama Locks Out Single Payer Supporters
by
| 03.03.2009
Although there is heavy support in Congress for a public-paid, public-administered Single Payer health plan, the White House has not invited any Single Payer supporters to March gathering. Big Insurance is invited however. So....It's time to Call the White House, at least. Relayed from Physicians for a National Health Program: PNHP Activists are encouraged to circulate the following Action Alerts widely. Thanks for your support for keeping single payer "on the table" in Washington. Call The White House: Let Single Payer In On Thursday, March 5, 2009, the White House will host a summit on how to reform health care. The 120 invited guests include lobbyists for various interest groups including the private insurance industry (AHIP), some members of Congress including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, who has already ruled single payer "off the table," and various others concerned with health care. No single payer advocates have been invited to attend. Please urge President Obama to fulfill his promise for transparency and openness in government. Call The White House (202) 456-1414 or (202) 456-1111. Tell them to let single payer into the White House Summit on health care. Distributed by: Not all invited to Obama's Summit on Health Care Email Pres. Obama: What happened to Openess and Transparency? Published by Swing State. One group is being left out of the White House's health reform forum Thursday: supporters of single payer health care. President Obama has promised an open discussion as he begins an aggressive push for health care reform. Obama said Monday he is "bringing together business and labor, doctors and insurers, Democrats and Republicans" to discuss. Progressive Democrats of America and Physicians for a National Health Program, leading proponents of expanding Medicare, government-run health care to cover all Americans, have not been invited and are "seeking" an invitation. John Conyers, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has become Congress' leader for single payer. He has authored H.R. 676, the model bill for single payer advocates, which has 59 cosponsors. He too has not yet received an invitation. Liberal health consumer advocate groups such as Families USA and Health Care for America Now are invited and are attending. Neither plan to push single payer. Even Obama's new nominee to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius' own newly implemented state agency, the Kansas Health Policy Authority, recommended single payer as one of four policy options. Despite the government agency's determination that single payer would be the cheapest, Kansas has also decided to reject that route thus far. Despite President Obama's pledge for an open discussion where every position has a seat at the table, one idea seems to be off the table. PNHP Letter on the White House Summit on Health Care Reform From: Ida Hellander February 25, 2009 Dear Liz, I am writing to respectfully request that you invite a representative of Physicians for a National Health Program to participate in next week's health care summit. Single payer national health insurance is not only one of the leading options for reform, it is the one most supported by the evidence. If Obama is to return science to Washington and compassion to health care, single payer must be on the table. Single payer national health insurance is supported by a majority of the public and physicians, and is the only reform that includes the financing mechanism needed to cover the 47 million uninsured Americans, a critical point for a nation in a recession/depression. Only single payer can slash administrative overhead, freeing up $400 billion annually for expanding health care coverage. Single payer is also by far the best option for reform in terms of containing the growth in future health spending and "saving" Medicare. The international record of single payer as an equitable, effective, efficient mechanism of financing health care is unparalleled. Single payer is also the only reform that has a true grassroots movement behind it. In polling as recent as last month, 59 percent of Americans favor a single payer "national health insurance program, in which everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that is run by the government and financed by taxpayers." Other polls find even stronger support. An editorial endorsing single payer appeared in yesterday's Seattle Post-Intelligencer (see below). As you know, PNHP has led the movement for fundamental reform of the health system for over two decades, and our leaders have produced groundbreaking research. Our 15,000 members across the country include some of the most prominent physicians in American medicine today. Last week, PNHP released a report on the flaws emerging as important lessons from the Massachusetts' health reform plan. Obama promised "change" during his campaign. If the confining his health care summit to groups like AARP (which receives one-third of their revenues from the sale of insurance) and other groups that have already ruled out single payer as an option for reform, he sends a clear signal that in health care, the scientific evidence, democratic discussion and deliberation is less important than protecting the insurance industry and the status quo. The PNHP leaders who participated in the "listening meeting" with the Transition Team would make good candidates for participating in the Summit: PNHP President Dr. Oliver Fein, PNHP co-founders Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler, PNHP Senior Health Policy Fellow Dr. Don McCanne, and PNHP National Coordinator Dr. Quentin Young. Thank you for your consideration, and please let me know how you wish to proceed. I may be reached at 312-782-6006, and am happy to provide contact information for our leadership or pass on an invitation through this office. Yours truly, Ida Hellander, MD |
|
© 1999–2008 Philadelphia Independent Media Center |
|
Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by PhillyIMC.
|
Comments
Obama gives in!
Submitted by wdog (not verified) on Wed, 03/04/2009 - 9:24pmThe health care demo in DC has been canceled because, due to high pressure calls to demand inclusion of Single Payer supporters at the White House Summit...Two, so far, Single Payer supporters have been, albeit reluctantly, invited!
Here's This from Physicians for a National Health Program.
http://pnhp.org
We have good news.
This afternoon we received word that Dr. Oliver Fein, president of Physicians for a National Health Program, has been invited to participate in tomorrow's White House summit on health care. He will therefore be joining Rep. John Conyers in the meeting as a strong advocate for a single-payer national health program.
Given this development, we are canceling the demonstration outside the White House that was planned for tomorrow.
While it remains true that the number of single-payer advocates in the summit will be few in number, we feel we have won an important victory and that demonstrative activity at the White House at this juncture is unnecessary.
Please continue to urge your members of Congress and President Obama to support single-payer national health insurance, the only fundamental solution to our health care crisis.
And thanks to everyone who called and e-mailed the White House about including the single-payer viewpoint at the summit - you helped make this victory happen!
Cordially,
Quentin Young Signature
Quentin Young, M.D.
National Coordinator
Post new comment