Published by Lindsay Renick Mayer on June 25, 2009 5:28 PM
There’s a particular breed of lawmaker on Capitol Hill that is pushing hard against a public health care plan, much to the delight of two seriously moneyed special interest groups–insurers and pharmaceuticals. They’re the Blue Dogs: moderate, vocal and funded in part by the industries trying to protect their bottom line.
The typical member* of the Blue Dog caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives has received $10,300 more from insurers than the typical non-Blue Dog Democrat in the House (including health and accident insurers, HMOs and other health services) and only $3,625 less than the typical House Republican. Earlier this month, the Blue Dogs sent a letter to House leadership arguing that a public option should be created “only if insurance market reforms and increased competition don’t lower costs on their own,” according to the Politico.
Healthcare-NOW! has received confirmation that, in a display of Congressional leadership, Congressman Anthony Weiner [NY 14], will introduce a single-payer amendment similar to HR 676 to the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s portion of the tri-committee healthcare legislation.
We need your help in telling members of the Energy and Commerce Committee that the people want single-payer now. It’s crucial for them to hear from you on this historic vote.
First, see if your Rep. is in the Energy and Commerce Committee here. (If not, call Chairman Henry Waxman at 202-225-3976)
Then, call the Congressional Switchboard at 800-473-6711 and ask to be connected to him/her. Ask to speak with the health legislative assistant. Say:
“Hello, My name is __________, and as your constituent, I urge the Representative to vote YES on Representative Anthony Weiner’s HR 676 amendment to the Energy and Commerce Committee’s healthcare bill.”
This is a historic vote on single-payer legislation in a committee of jurisdiction over healthcare reform. The amendment symbolizes the elimination of the for-profit health insurance companies from the health care system; replacing them with a publicly funded, privately delivered single-payer system that guarantees comprehensive health care for everyone in the United States.
This amendment shows that the grassroot support for single-payer is being heard. Let’s keep the pressure up on Congress. Join us on July 30th in DC for a national lobby day and rally.
Thanks for all that you do,
Healthcare-NOW! National Staff
Get on the bus! July 30, Rally and Lobby in DC for HR 676
July 30 marks Medicare’s 44th Birthday. Activists from more than a dozen cities are sending busloads to Washington, DC, to celebrate the occasion and to show Congress and President Obama the strong support for a national, single payer healthcare system. People will visit their Congresspersons to urge them to sign on to HR 676 in the House and S 703 in the Senate, then come together for a rally at 1:00 pm.
Rally for Expanded and Improved Medicare for All, HR 676
Thursday, July 30, 1:00 pm, Upper Senate Park
(between Constitution Ave, New Jersey Ave, and Delaware Ave)
Confirmed Rally Speakers:
Jos Williams – President, AFL-CIO Metropolitan Washington Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Dr. David Scheiner – President Obama’s personal physician of 22 years
Sidney M. Wolfe, MD – Acting President of Public Citizen
Terry O’Neill – President, National Organization for Women
Senator James Ferlo – Pennsylvania State Senator
Sameer Dossani – Demand Dignity Campaign Director, Amnesty International
Barbara Ehrenreich – Feminist, sociologist, political activist, and author of “Nickled and Dimed”
Congressman John Conyers, Jr – Chair, House Judiciary Committee, and sponsor of HR 676
Medea Benjamin – Cofounder of Code Pink and Global Exchange
Tim Carpenter – Progressive Democrats of America, Executive Director
Donna Smith – Community Activist and Legislative Advocate, California Nurses Association, whose story of financial bankruptcy was featured in Michael Moore’s film, “SiCKO.”
Medicare has successfully provided care to seniors and people with disabilities for almost half a century. Its single payer structure with only 3% administrative costs stands in sharp contrast to the 20% and higher wasted by the private insurance companies on administration and profits. As Washington struggles to fund health care reform, an expanded and improved Medicare shows the way to do it!
Join us in DC on July 30!! Western Pennsylvania Bus leaves Pittsburgh at 5am. Meeting with Cong. Altmire in DC at 3pm. For more information contact Tina Shannon, 4th CD Chapter PDA 724 843 0545.
On Tuesday, July 21, at 11:30 pm EDT, watch Dr. Aaron Carroll talk about single-payer health reform on The Colbert Report, the Emmy award-winning satirical television program on Comedy Central.
Dr. Carroll is a board member of Physicians for a National Health Program (www.pnhp.org), an organization of 16,000 physicians, medical students and health professionals who support single-payer national health insurance.
Urge Pennsylvania State Senate to help jobless workers
The House took decisive action on July 7 to provide a lifeline to some 57,000 Pennsylvanians who are still looking for work but are running out of unemployment compensation.
The legislation (H.B. 1770) would temporarily change the mechanism Pennsylvania uses to trigger extended unemployment benefits. Byswitching the state’s trigger to the total unemployment rate, the state could draw on $145 million in federal stimulus money to offer seven weeks of additional emergency unemployment benefits.
If the Senate does not act quickly, tens of thousands of Pennsylvania workers and their families will lose the only safety net they have right now. Just this weekend, benefits to about 18,000 unemployed workers will not continue.
You can help in this fight. Visit the House Democrats’ online action center and send a message to the Senate. Tell the Senate to make use of the available federal funding for jobless workers and to pass the bill today.
Call Sen. Elder Vogel today: 724-774-0444 Rochester, 724-654-1444 New Castle.
Two More Labor Councils Endorse HR 676. Total Now 130.
In Grand Forks, North Dakota, the Northern Valley Labor Council AFL-CIO of Western Minnesota and Eastern North Dakota has endorsed HR 676, single payer health care legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), reports Mark Froemke, President of the West Minnesota Area Labor Council. The Council voted at its June 9th meeting.
In Portland, Oregon, the Northwest Oregon Labor Council voted June 22nd to endorse HR 676 and to submit a resolution to the National AFL-CIO Convention calling for an endorsement of HR 676.
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Anderson, a member of the Executive Board of the Northwest Oregon Council, helped in bringing forward the resolution to the Executive Board and to the Council. Other supporting unions included IBEW Local 48, the Machinists, and CWA, reports Margaret Butler, CWA Local 7901 council delegate.
One hundred and thirty Labor Councils and Area Labor Federations have now endorsed HR 676.
No time today for a lengthy analysis of the Tri-Committee health bill. My quick-and-dirty take is this.Those who think the bill is a wonderful progressive victory with a robust public option are wrong, and, on the flip side, the charge that it’s a “bailout for the insurance industry” is totally divorced from what the bill would actually do if passed.
It is the most progressive, comprehensive and significant health care legislation to come down the pike since Medicare was passed in 1965. If it were enacted as written, it’d go a long way to solving a lot of our problems (but by no means all) and wouldn’t break the bank in the process. (I’ll have more next week on the good, the bad and the ugly in the new bill.)
But it also fails some of the basic criteria that most progressives have long said is a red-line that can’t be crossed. First and foremost, it doesn’t have a public option that can compete with private insurers and result in significant cost savings.
It has a public plan in which — as far as the statute goes (it can be expanded in 2015 but there’s no mandate to do so) — only 9-10 million people will be eligible to enroll by 2019. Similarly, the publicly-administered exchanges are projected to cover about 30 million by that year. (These relatively small insurance pools will be able to bargain in concert with Medicare to some degree, so their power will be magnified, but still…)
House Committee Allows States to Create Single-Payer Healthcare
By David Swanson
July 17, 2009
Kucinich amendment receives bi-partisan support
[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a victory for single-payer advocates. Our job in the ensuing weeks will be to ensure that this amendment does not get stripped from the final legislation.]
On Friday morning at 9:45 a.m. ET in the House Committee on Education and Labor, the committee members voted 25 to 19 to pass Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s amendment to the healthcare reform bill. This amendment, if it survives the full House, the Senate, the conference, and the President, will not alter the federal legislation except to allow states to create single-payer healthcare systems if they choose to. If this change to the bill makes news, it will pass the Senate, because there is no legitimate argument against it, and the support for it is bipartisan.
Beaver County Blue: Voice of the 17th CD of Progressive Democrats of America 