On Thursday March 5 President Obama will hold a White House conference to kick off his health care reform initiative. 120 people have been invited, but there are no representatives of the single payer model. The corporate powers are stacking the deck before the game begins.Contact the White House now.
On Thursday March 5 President Obama has invited 120 interested parties to the White House to kick off his health reform initiative. There is no doubt this is very important and he is showing great leadership in seizing the momentum on this issue. Nonetheless he is adhering to the advice of the powers that be and following conventional wisdom in not inviting any representative of the SINGLE PAYER or MEDICARE FOR ALL to the conference. This is the only proposal that does away with the wasteful (over $2000 per person per year) and inefficient (15 to 20% spent on overhead and profit per year - totaling $400 billion per year from premiums) private, for profit insurance companies. This is the only proposal that immediately would cover 100% of American residents. This is the only proposal that would quickly produce a net savings - estimated to be as much as $50 billion dollars per year.This is the only proposal with a truly grassroots following. Even Representative John Conyers, sponsor of HR 676 which lays out in legislative detail how to implement single payer- with nearly 100 Congressional cosponsors has not been invited. The calculation is that this proposal is too drastic and it will have much political opposition, yet it is the only true solution. Not only is the employer based health model in a death spiral; the private for profit insurance company exploitation of the sick is a component of our national economic crisis. For details you can easily go to Congressman Conyers web site or pnhp.org.
I bet AARP or its front groups have been invited. Did you know AARP is an insurance broker posing as an advocacy organization? Its annual budget of $1 billion (!!!) includes over $700 million made from insurance commissions. In health care it has a sole provider relationship with United Health Care - widely seen as the most offensive anti-doctor and anti- patient insurance company.
This is time, if ever there was one, for the net roots to organize and respond. The time is brief. Email twitter, blog contact everyone you know. Call the White House at (202) 456-1414 or (202) 456-1111.