Finally, House members will have the chance to go on record for the most comprehensive, most cost effective healthcare reform of all -- and the only one that actually ends the abusive reign of the insurance industry.
A full House debate and floor vote is expected as soon as Friday on a Medicare for all/single-payer amendment introduced by Rep. Anthony Weiner prior to Saturday's vote on the main bill.
We need your support as well, and calls to Congress members urging their vote for the amendment--regardless of how they vote on the final bill.
You can use this click-to-call tool and be automatically connected to your Representatives. Or you can reach the Washington office of your Representatives by calling the Capitol Switchboard: 202-225-3121.
Why is a big vote for single payer in the House important?
- It's the clearest way to repudiate the broken insurance-based system that puts profits ahead of our health.
- It strengthens the hand of House negotiators for a stronger bill in the upcoming meeting with Senate leaders in conference committee.
- It reinforces efforts by nurses, doctors, labor unions, and other single payer advocates to continue the fight for broader reform in Congress and the states after a final bill is signed by President Obama.
- It is a powerful message to those in the Democratic Party who think the response to Tuesday's election should be to move to the right on a broad range of issues including healthcare, climate change, labor law reform, and the wars. And kudos to Kos' election analysis.
One striking note is the growing support among labor and American workers.
A full page ad in Roll Call (link to ad) today endorsing it was signed by the AFL-CIO, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, California School Employees Association (CSEA), United American Nurses, United Electrical workers (UE), Machinists (IAM), United Mine Workers, Intl. Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), Utility Workers, Professional and Technical Employees (IFPTE), and the Labor Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare.
This follows on the unanimous endorsement of single payer at the AFL-CIO convention in September.
Even getting a vote on single payer has been an enormous uphill fight -- dating back to the decision of the White House and the Congressional leadership to shut single payer advocates out of the healthcare debate from the start.
Recall that it took civil disobedience arrests at the Senate Finance Committee in May before Max Baucus, who had made the insurance industry, big Pharma, the Chamber of Commerce and other corporate players, regular stakeholders in his hearings to admit it was a mistake to exclude single payer proponents.
It took a major lobbying grassroots lobbying effort in July to win passage of an amendment by Rep. Dennis Kucinich waiving legal barriers to state single payer bills. House leaders then promised Rep. Weiner a House floor vote on a federal Medicare for all bill. Then last week, the House leaders broke their agreements, dropping the Kucinich amendment with no plausible explanation -- which prompted thousands of calls and multiple protests, including arrests after a sit-in Tuesday at Pelosi's San Francisco office.
Here's a photo of those arrested holding their citations:
The decision to re-instate a vote on the Weiner amendment is the product of everyone's hard work.
Whatever your position on the main bill, most would agree with nyceve's point that it has shortcomings in protecting families from rising healthcare costs (some middle income families could pay 15 percent or more of their income for the premiums and deductibles), in cracking down on insurance denials of needed medical care when recommended by a patient's doctor in guaranteeing choice of provider, and in even making the public option available to everyone.
By contrast, as the Roll Call ad notes, a vote for Medicare for all/single payer, is a vote for:
• Universal health care for everyone.
• Expanded choice of doctors and hospitals.
• Strong, effective cost controls through bulk purchasing and negotiated fee schedules based on patient need, budgeting for hospitals and clinics, ending insurance administrative waste, and an emphasis on quality of care rather than volume of services.
• Medical decisions made by patients and their doctors, not insurance claims adjustors.
• Ending the competitive disadvantage our employers have versus companies in countries with a national healthcare system.
• A major economic stimulus. Medicare for all would create 2.6 million new jobs, $317 billion in higher business and public revenues, at a cost of just $63 billion more than we spend on healthcare now.
Please use this click-to-call tool and be automatically connected to your Representatives. Or you can reach the Washington office of your Representatives by calling the Capitol Switchboard: 202-225-3121.