Two weekends ago, after the bait and switch of a vote on single-payer
for a vote on an anti-abortion amendment, we felt wizened to the
possibility of unknown threats in the legislative churn on health
reform. As insurance and pharmaceutical companies, Catholic bishops,
and the right wing throw in dollars, lobbyists, and pressure for no
votes on the final bill, it is clear we who are in the business of
protecting and improving our rights to access to health care, including
abortion, must remain vigilant and ready to challenge these threats.
The
Obama administration has broadened the scope of what it wants to
dismiss as unrealistic, utopian and unpragmatic, i.e. as for all
practical purposes impossible. These claims have typically been
accompanied by the assurance that “This is not something that Americans
would go for – it’s not the American way.” Obama’s case against a
single payer health care system is a conspicuous case in point. His
position on this issue features weak arguments and serious factual
errors.
The Alleged Impossibility of Universal Health Care
A very complex, mandatory private insurance scheme recently passed the U.S. House. The public is being overwhelmed by sound bites on one hand about how great it is, on the other, how terrible. We are hearing few of the details that are actually in the bill. Having read the bill, it is clear now that what started as health reform has emerged from the political process as health "deform," building on the worst, not the best of the current system.
The Affordable Health Care for America Act was approved by the U.S.
House Saturday night with overwhelming support from progressive
Democrats who serve in the chamber and from a president who was
nominated and elected with the enthusiastic support of progressive
voters.
But that does not mean that informed and engaged progressives are entirely enthusiastic about the measure.
Well, the House health reform bill -- known to Republicans as the
Government Takeover -- finally passed after one of Congress's longer,
less enlightening debates. Two stalwarts of the single-payer movement
split their votes; John Conyers voted for it; Dennis Kucinich against.
Kucinich was right.
Dear Friends,
We thank you for your continued devotion to the
cause of health care for All Americans. We have worked together for
many years to write, promote and campaign for HR676, a single payer,
not for profit health care system. Your work, in communities across
America, has been instrumental in helping at least ten states create
single payer movements, with many more states to come.
The
Show Must (not) Go On
The elaborate Congressional
circus whimsically referred to as ‘healthcare reform' - the one
that has held the nation captive since President Obama's earliest
weeks in office - came complete with dancing clowns, disappearing acts
and trained tigers jumping through hoops.
But today the magic is gone.
The performance is degenerating.
The public is beginning to understand what the political players knew
all along - that this three ring circus was never meant to be more than
a sideshow.
If there's a point where single payer supporters in Congress should draw a line in the sand and say, "Beyond this we do not go," we've probably reached it with the refusal of the House Leadership to restore the Kucinich Amendment to the health care reform bill. The amendment, which guarantees states the power to create their own single-payer health care systems, passed the House Committee on Education and Labor by a 27-19 in July but was eliminated in the bill reported out to the House floor for a vote.
An amendment to allow states to pursue single-payer health care without incurring insurance-industry lawsuits was stripped from the House bill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday, adding that it would break President Obama's commitment to people keeping their current insurance plan if they like it.
In Washington, "healthcare reform" has degenerated into a sick joke.
At this point, only spinners who've succumbed to their own vertigo could use the word "robust" to describe the public option in the healthcare bill that the House Democratic leadership has sent to the floor.
