PoliticalAction.com Blog

In 2003, Barack Obama said he was for single payer.

What would it take to get single payer enacted?

“First, we have to take back the White House, the Senate and the House,” Obama said at the time.

Fast forward six years.

The Democrats have taken the White House.

The Senate and the House.

And now what’s Obama’s position?

In a speech this week in Chicago before the American Medical Association, Obama made clear he was now opposed to single payer.

And his lieutenants suggested that Obama would support legislation to make sure that single payer does not become a reality in America.

There’s only one explanation for Obama’s flip-flop on single payer.

The health insurance and drug corporations have a hammerlock on Washington.

And Obama is going along to get along.

What’s the net result?

Sixty Americans are dying every day due to lack of health insurance. (Institute of Medicine report.)

Instead of getting behind single payer, Obama and the Democrats are engaged in the what Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief at the highly regarded New England Journal of Medicine calls “the futility of piecemeal tinkering.”

Earlier this week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the most liberal of the Democrats’ tinkering plans would cost $1 trillion over ten years and still leave 37 million Americans uninsured.

Single payer on the other hand would cost less than we are overpaying now — and cover everyone.

Zero uninsured.

As Dr. Angell puts it — single payer is not only the best option.

It’s the only option that will both control costs and cover everyone.

Replace 1,300 insurance industry payers with one payer.

Save $400 billion a year in bloated corporate administrative and executive compensation costs.

Free choice of doctor and hospital.

Use that money to insure everyone.

No bills, no co-pays, no deductibles.

No exclusions for pre-existing conditions — because under single payer, you are insured from the day you are born.

No bankruptcies due to medical bills.

No deaths due to lack of health insurance.

Cheaper. Simpler. More affordable.

Everybody in. Nobody out.

According to recent polls, the majority of Americans, the majority of doctors, the majority of nurses, even the majority of health economists want single payer.

That’s why almost every health care town hall event I hear about is dominated by citizens speaking out for single payer.

Last month, we asked that you help fund a new non-profit organization – Single Payer Action – to focus this citizen energy, break through the corporate logjam in Washington and make single payer a reality.

You came through with flying colors — and blew past our initial fundraising goal.

The foundation was set for action.

Out of the blocks, Single Payer Action led a stand up protest before Senator Max Baucus’ Senate Finance Committee.

Thirteen doctors, nurses, lawyers and other single payer advocates were summarily arrested and charged with “disruption of Congress.”

(Baucus later told single payer advocates that he regretted not inviting them to testify before his committee.)

The arrests of the Baucus 13, their upcoming trial, and other similar single payer actions around the country have galvanized a nationwide movement.

Single Payer Action now wants to supercharge the grassroots movement for single payer.

Confront members of Congress back home all around the country.

And lay the groundwork for a national citizen’s organization that will refuse to compromise with corporate power — inside the beltway and out.

Many progressives are now confused.

They took Obama at his word.

They thought once Obama was elected President, he would do the right thing.

My colleague, Theresa Amato, is not confused.

Grand IllusionShe saw clearly through the Democratic Party’s duplicity and shenanigans — and has written a new book, titled Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two Party Tyranny (New Press, June 2009)

The book documents how the corporate two-party system thwarts citizen activism and blocks challenging candidates in the electoral system and beyond.

Phil Donahue said this about Grand Illusion: “Theresa Amato takes the biggest swing — not a jab, but a roundhouse punch — at America’s corrupt electoral system.”

Single Payer Action needs to raise $50,000 over the next month to fund its actions around the country this summer.

So, please, donate now — $10, $25, $50, $100, $500 — or whatever you can afford.

If you donate $100 or more now, Single Payer Action will send you a copy, hot off the press, of Amato’s hard cover, 379-page masterpiece — Grand Illusion.

(Okay, since it also includes chapters about my campaign against the corporate Republicans and Democrats — and since I wrote the foreword — I’ll autograph it.)

So, don’t delay.

Donate now.

Let’s break through the corporate barriers and make single payer a reality.

Together, we can make the difference.

Onward to a life-saving, cost-saving single payer.

Ralph Nader

Voting on the supplemental is imminent, and the outcome is
NOT a foregone conclusion.

That’s why we’re asking you once again to call your Congressional
representatives and tell them to vote ‘NO’ on the bill, H.R. 2346.

This time, though, we don’t want you just to call your own Congressional
representatives. We also need you to reach out to representatives who
remain undecided or are tentatively leaning ‘YES’ or ‘NO’.

This can be done with Firedoglake’s Citizen Whip Tool, which
helps you find out where Democratic representatives are leaning on the
Supplemental. The goal is to target those Democrats who are either ‘Leaning
NO’, ‘Undecided’, or ‘Leaning YES’. The major national peace and justice
groups, with which UFPJ works, culled together this targeted list with your
report-backs.

To reach the Capitol Switchboard, call this number: 202-224-3121.

Your phone calls made a big difference in the first round of votes, as 51
antiwar House Representatives voted against the Supplemental. And now, due
partly to our pressure earlier this week, the Graham-Lieberman torture
amendment will be taken out of the reconciliation bill. However, the IMF
funding remains — and most importantly, so does the funding for the wars
and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

That’s why we need to make these calls, express our opposition to more war
spending, and force our Congressional representatives to take a stand!
Let’s send a strong message to Washington: end these wars!

Thanks,

United For Peace and Justice

AP sources: House Dems favor insurance requirement

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent David Espo

WASHINGTON – Senior House Democrats drafting health care legislation are considering slapping an unspecified financial penalty on anyone who refuses to purchase affordable health insurance, a key committee chairman said Monday.

In addition, officials said Democrats are considering a new tax on certain health insurance benefits as one of numerous options to help pay for expanding coverage to the uninsured. No details on the tax were immediately available, and no final decisions were expected until next week at the earliest.

These officials said drafters of the legislation will include a government-run insurance option as well as plans offered by private companies. The government option draws near-unanimous opposition from Republicans and provokes concerns among many Democrats, as well, although President Barack Obama has spoken out in favor of it.

Under the emerging House Democratic plan, individuals and small businesses would be able to purchase coverage from a “health exchange” and the government would require all plans to contain a minimum benefit, these officials added. No applicant could be rejected for pre-existing conditions, nor could they be charged a higher premium, they said.

House Democrats also are considering a wide-ranging change for Medicaid that would provide a uniform benefit across all 50 states and increase payments to health professionals, according to several officials. Medicaid is a state-federal program of health coverage for the poor.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to pre-empt a presentation to rank-and-file Democrats on Tuesday.

At the same time, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, confirmed the proposed penalty for those who refuse to purchase coverage they can afford, referring to it as “play or pay.”

“There is no use having a mandate without a contribution,” he said.

Waivers would be available for those who could not cover the cost of insurance.

The disclosures came as the pace of activity quickened in both the House and Senate on health insurance legislation, a top priority for the administration. Obama is scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon at the White House with several Democrats.

Democratic leaders hope to pass legislation in both houses by the first few days of August, and complete work on a compromise measure in the fall for Obama’s signature.

Obama has stepped up his own involvement in the issue in recent days, and there has been a flurry of negotiations involving outside interest groups who have pledged to take steps to achieve savings within the private insurance market.

Alongside those efforts, financing Obama’s plan to spread coverage more widely carries a price tag estimated at higher than $1 trillion over a decade. House Democrats are considering cutting projected Medicare payments to home health care, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, hospitals and others to cover costs.

The option for taxing insurance benefits is also under consideration as part of legislation taking shape across the Capitol in the Senate Finance Committee.

Numerous options are possible, many involving either a tax levied according to the value of an individual’s employer-provided health plan, or on the benefits received by upper-income taxpayers.

The issue poses multiple potential problems for Obama, who has pledged not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $250,000 and also ran commercials during the presidential campaign criticizing GOP rival Sen. John McCain’s call for a tax on health benefits.

In recent weeks, the president and his aides have sought to straddle the issue, neither accepting it nor ruling it out.

Equally troublesome politically is the issue of a government insurance option. Critics argue it would render private companies unable to compete, and it has emerged as a key sticking point in the Democratic search for a bipartisan plan in the Senate.

All the Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee except one wrote Obama recently telling him he was making a mistake if he insisted on a government option. The exception was Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who has been trying to find a compromise that would make a government plan available as a last resort if health insurance remains unaffordable for many families even after Congress overhauls the system.

Even before last fall’s general election, health care was a key issue in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination. Obama proposed requiring parents to buy health insurance for children, with a possible fine if parents refused. But he would not insist that all adults buy insurance.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was a New York senator at the time as well as a presidential candidate, said a mandate was essential. At one point, she said she was open to garnisheeing the wages of anyone who refused to comply.