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Healthcare reform is at the top of the Congressional agenda. President Obama wants Congress to pass sweeping legislation before the end of the year, with or without the approval of the minority.
Single-payer advocates, who have been routinely left out of official healthcare meetings in Washington, are taking the debate directly to the people in a series of events to provoke citizen action. The HR 676 Week of Action, April 18 – 25, sponsored by Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), ended last Saturday, but there are many more events planned in the upcoming months. Tim Carpenter, PDA’s national director, commented, “We have lots of tools at our disposal, all designed to get the majority of Americans who support single-payer healthcare to contact their members of Congress.”
Carpenter, with members of PDA California and the national PDA team, just completed “The HR 676 California Road Show,” part of the HR 676 Week of Action. After appearing in Phoenix, Ariz., Carpenter arrived in Corona, Calif., for the first of several rallies, town-hall meetings and protests. The road show moved up the coast to Orange, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, then Sacramento, where the California state Democratic Party held its annual convention.
PDA joined forces with the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party to pass a single-payer resolution in support of HR 676 and California’s single-payer bill, SB 810. After a short exchange on the exact language of the resolution, it passed.
In addition, 50,000 flyers were distributed along the route and at the convention, and thousands of “Sign the Healthcare NOT Warfare Petition ” stickers were pasted onto lapels, knapsacks, hats, and politicians. “The petition will be delivered to Congress in the coming months,” said Carpenter, adding, “we’re going full throttle for as many signatures as we can get.” Sign it. Dozens of other events took place across the country last week, including gatherings in Massachusetts and Ohio.
On May 13, led by five hundred nurses from CNA/NNOC, PDA members and the Leadership Conference on Guaranteed Healthcare are participating in a rally and lobby day in Washington, D.C. On May 30, the Leadership Conference on Guaranteed Healthcare is sponsoring a National Day of Action. among other planned events that day, Rep. John Conyers will appear at a town-hall meeting in Rochester, New York, sponsored by the Genesee Valley PDA chapter.
Meanwhile, PDA ally “1Payer.net” is conducting several effective campaigns. As of this writing, the eFax campaign has generated over 10,000 faxes to Congress members. Responsive citizens broke Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco office fax machine last weekend. The organization is raising money to run several ads featuring Mike Farrell, M*A*S*H’s Dr. B.J. Honicutt, on Medicare for all.
Another clever idea being promoted is the virtual “March on Washington.”
Polls show the majority of Americans want single-payer healthcare. It also has the support of over five hundred local labor unions, the Conference of Mayors for Cities and Towns, the Maine and Kentucky legislatures and seventy-six members of Congress.
In response to why Congress is avoiding single-payer healthcare, Carpenter replied, “There are very powerful forces at work--healthcare corporations—who stand to lose a lot of money. They are huge contributors to many members of Congress, and some of them, like Max Baucus, are in charge of very powerful committees. That’s why we’re asking constituents in every state to contact their members.”
When asked about the public-option being touted by some groups, Carpenter said, "The single-payer solution is the only reform that provides healthcare to everyone, contains costs, and saves money. All of those aspects are lost or severely diminished with a private-public mix. PDA believes that tweaking our current public-private system as proposed will only delay the inevitable how many more people must get very, very sick before seeking treatment, die, or go bankrupt, before inside-the- beltway-corporate politicians finally do the right thing by them? How many more businesses will go belly-up before Congress acts in the best interest of the average guy instead of these rich and powerful CEOs"
Carpenter promised that PDA will continue the struggle for the single-payer solution. If HR 676 should fail in Congress, then the fight will move to state legislatures.
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