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Polls clearly show that most Americans are in favor of single-payer national health insurance, yet our representatives in congress just have not gotten the message.  So, Single Pay USA, is hosting another rally at Senator Wyden’s Portland office.  (Wyden is still pushing his everyone-must-buy-private-insurance plan.)

By Derrick Duehren and Mike Crabbe

The Merkley Town Hall went very well with an audience of about 100 people.  The audience was highly charged with Single Payer and health care reform advocates setting up Merkley to address all but about a half dozen questions on health care.  JwJ (Jobs with Justice), Single Payer in Action, UA290 members and other S.P. organizations were visible, including David Dunning who provided Merkley with a copy of the Luntz health care bashing strategy paper.

These polls indicate about 55 to 60% support for single payer health care! 

Associated Press - Yahoo [with link to pdf] — 65% — Dec 2007

— Question ISS14. The United States should adopt a universal health insurance program in which everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that is run by the government and financed by taxpayers: 65% yes; 34% no; 2% refused / not answered

Testimony of Wendell Potter before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, June 24, 2009

My name is Wendell Potter and for 20 years, I worked as a senior executive at health insurance companies, and I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick - all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors.

I know from personal experience that members of Congress and the public have good reason to question the honesty and trustworthiness of the insurance industry. Insurers make promises they have no intention of keeping, they flout regulations designed to protect consumers, and they make it nearly impossible to understand--or even to obtain-information we need.

Going forward we need to find additional money that can be put into the rainy day fund. The average economic expansion is about 6 years or so. During those good years we need to save about 2-3 billion for the next downturn. This downturn left a 4 billion hole in the budget, this doesnt cover all of it, but it would help to make the cuts dramatically less severe.

We rely on income taxes in Oregon, these taxes are very cyclical and drop sharpely during a recession. We thus need to save during the good times so that we can cover the bad times. Any well run household saves money to cover a rainy day, its time that Oregon is allowed to do the same thing.

We could do this by reforming the kicker to allow up to 50% of it to be put into the rainy day fund until this 2-3 billion level is reached. We can make a good case for stability with a proposal like this.

From Sen Bernie Sander's website, a petition to Congress supporting Single Payer Health Care for all Americans:

Whereas:

Most Americans are in favor of single-payer national health insurance, yet our representatives in congress just have not gotten the message.  So a local upstart coalition movement, Single Pay USA, is hosting a series of rallies to begin at Senator Wyden’s Portland office and then move to Representative Wu’s office.  (They will also rally at Rep. Blumenauer’s office, probably the next Thursday.)

Single Pay USA

Rally for Health

Sen. Wyden’s Office

Thursday, 6/25/09

Noon – 1:00 pm

We all know that Max Baucus kept single-payer advocates from testifying at his hearing. It turns out that not even Ted Kennedy mentions single payer in his plan (not yet submitted).

We all know that 60% of the American public favors single payer.

We all know that the insurance and pharmaceutical companies are spending hundreds of millions of lobby dollars to keep the "government option" from providing any significant benefit or competition to the status quo.

One Senator, Bernie Sanders, is actively promoting single payer. You can read his message and watch a brief video here. If you so choose, you can sign his petition:

http://sanders.senate.gov/petitions/index.cfm?uid=7fd59f2e-88e1-477a-8ea...

There are a few major issues to be resolved before single payer can be adopted:

1. The insurance company employees who will be displaced must have a federal program to help them find other work. Otherwise, they will fight against single-payer.

2. The public must be educated in more detail about what the other OECD countries are doing to beat the pants off U.S. health care, with lower cost and better outcomes. Otherwise, the industry fear-mongering will win. Obama is tip-toeing through industry and the AMA to minimize antagonism. Understandable. So have somebody like the OMB or the GAO put out the info in easy-to-understand format. Don't point people to OECD; they'll give up before they read it all.

3. Last but not least, politicians must not be indebted to industry for campaign funds. Can anyone say "campaign finance reform?"

Bob May

This morning I was listening to Thom Hartmann on the way to work, and he called Jeff Merkley's and Ron Wyden's offices and told them he supported a Single Payer Health Care Plan, like HR676. The screeners at both offices were cordial and thanked Thom for his input and said they would share that info with the respective Senators. Now this is something I've been meaning to do for a little while so I thought, "Dude, you've got these guys on your speed dial, now is a good time while careening down the freeway at breakneck speed".
So first I called David Wu's offices (in both Portland and DC) and told them I strongly support Single Payer coverage for all Americans, that is the most economical, humane and practical solution, and I urged Rep. Wu to sign on to HR676 with I think over 65 other members of Congress. I also asked where Rep Wu stood on the issue, and the Portland screener said he's still talking to constituents and getting more info, the DC screener said he could not speak for the Rep but he certainly was on board himself! Thanks for your time and regards to all.
On to Jeff Merkley's DC office. The screener said Sen Merkley supported a single payer plan, we discussed the TV ads that show Merkley and Wyden together and imply they are of like minds, and these ads are in fact paid for by pharmaceutical lobbies, and the screener said yep and there's nothing Jeff can do about it. I thanked the screener and told him I was very pleased with Jeff's support of SP.