For rest of interview go to next page.

Continue reading Cong. Weiner Discusses Medicare for All on Morning Joe TV Show →

Progressives must turn up the heat for the Single Payer option – the Weiner Amendment to HR 3200, to be introduced on floor of House in September. The Weiner Amendment substitutes the text of HR 676 the National Healthcare Act for the current text of HR 3200, the liberal compromise with the insurance industry.

See article below by liberal blogger Jane Hamsher. The debate about public option is a phony debate because there are not enough votes to pass a healthcare bill without the public option, and the White House knows this. Why start a debate about the public option? Because the grassroots pressure for Medicare for All is building and word of the Weiner amendment is spreading. Call your Congressperson and ask for a Yes vote on the Weiner amendment.

Obama picks public option fight with liberals

by Jane Hamsher

Founder, FireDogLake.com

Many people are rightly upset that the White House is sending stronger and stronger signals that they are willing to jettison a public option.  What was once the defining feature of the Obama health care plan has now been dismissed with a bipartisan flourish.  “[I]t’s both the right and the left that have become so fixated on this that they forget everything else,” he says.

There are 435 seats on the House.  Of those, 257 are filled by Democrats and 178 by Republicans.  Which means a majority is 218.  The Republicans have vowed to vote against health care, period.  The Democrats can pass health care on their own, but if they lose 40 of their own, they only have 217 votes.

Continue reading Obama Concession on ‘Public Option’ Compromise Is Attempt to Sidetrack Single Payer Option →

The Complete Deconstructing the Right Wing Lies on the Health Insurance Bill

The right’s lies about the current health insurance proposals before Congress have rarely been compiled in such concise form before.

To view article, please click on the link below –

http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/deconstructing-rw-lies-hcbill.html

Dear Congressman Altmire,

I write to urge your support for the Weiner Single-Payer Amendment to HR 3200, which will receive a floor vote in September.

The Weiner amendment would replace Division A of HR 3200 with the text of HR 676, the “U.S. National Health Care Act,” sponsored by Rep. John Conyers. This would effectively transform HR 3200 into single-payer legislation.

Single-payer is a superior reform to HR 3200 in many ways:

* Single payer would provide universal and comprehensive coverage for all medically necessary services. Unamended, HR 3200 would leave millions uninsured or with skimpy coverage.

* Single payer allows patients free choice of doctor and hospital. Under HR 3200, insurance companies would continue to deny care and restrict access to services.

* Single payer pays for itself by eliminating $400 billion in insurance company administrative waste and redirecting it to care. HR 3200 requires $1 trillion in new revenue in the next decade.

* Single payer establishes proven and effective cost-containing mechanisms to ensure that benefits are sustainable over the long run. HR 3200 lacks effective cost controls.

The Weiner amendment presents an historic opportunity for Members to register their support for single-payer national health insurance as the best way to solve the U.S. healthcare crisis. It additionally will provide a vote that Members can stand by when approached by constituents.

While we recognize the political imperative to pass healthcare reform, it is important to remember that the purpose of reform is to ease the burden for all Americans. Only single-payer healthcare meets that goal—both medically and economically. The Weiner Amendment deserves your vote.