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Protesters Want Baucus to Consider Single-Payer System
Protesters in Helena, Great Falls, Missoula, Bozeman and Butte gathered at Baucus' local field offices and demanded that Montana's senior senator, and chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, put single-payer back on the table.
About 100 protesters gathered at a rally at the Great Northern Town Center in Helena to protest Sen. Max Baucus' refusal to consider a single-payer health care system. (Tribune Photo/John S. Adams) Eric Feaver, president of the state's largest labor union, MEA-MFT, addressed the crowd at the amphitheater at the Great Northern Town Center and said he doesn't want to "trash" Baucus, but that Baucus is on the wrong path by ignoring single-payer.
"I think he has a very difficult job and he has 100 senators to work with that are not of one mind," Feaver said. "But I am here to remind Sen. Baucus that MEA-MFT does have 18,000 members who live and work everywhere in this state and they all vote. And they have supported single-payer for many years."
Though Baucus has been frigid to the idea of single-payer, he has said he'd consider supporting a public option in which the federal government would create an insurance plan that would compete with private insurance plans. However, Baucus also has floated the idea of taxing employer-provided health care benefits, a proposal MEA-MFT adamantly opposes, Feaver said.
"The working men and women of this state support health care reform, and they want the most comprehensive health care reform possible," Feaver said.
Kim Abbott, lead organizer for the Montana Human Rights Network's Right to Healthcare program, said affordable health care is not a privilege, but a human right.
"There is nothing more infuriating, or frustrating or sickening than knowing the answer but not having the political will to do the right thing," Abbott said. "We all know the answer. What's the answer?"
"Single payer!" the crowd responded.
Dr. Carol Paris, a Maryland psychiatrist who was twice arrested last month for protesting single-payer's exclusion from two Senate Finance Committee hearings, also appeared at Friday's rally.Paris, who was introduced as a "hero" of the single-payer movement for her acts of civil disobedience, said single-payer advocates need to "keep the heat on Sen. Baucus."
"The next 60 days truly are critical," Paris said. "We need to keep the momentum going here and in Washington."
Paris said single-payer advocates have three demands of Baucus.
- That he and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., hold Senate hearings on the merits of single-payer health care.
- That Baucus order the Congressional Budget Office to study the costs of implementing the Senate and House versions of single payer bills that have already been introduced.
- That Baucus arrange a meeting between President Barack Obama and single-payer experts.
After the rally protesters walked to Baucus' office around the corner. A Baucus staffer handed protesters a sheet of paper with Baucus' position on single payer.
"For more than a year Sen. Baucus has been laying the ground work to enact comprehensive, meaningful health care reform," the letter said in part.
It went on to say that Baucus and single-payer advocates "share the same goal."
"Both Senator Baucus and single payer advocates believe that every Montanan should have quality, affordable health care," the letter stated.
The two sides remain far from agreement on how to achieve that goal.
25 Comments so far
Show AllAs one who advocates non-violence, I deeply regret that I am unable to support or recommend a tactic that would both justly reward Senator Baucus' tireless efforts to serve his corporate masters, AND serve as the tipping-point to bring the Obama maladministration on board with single-payer.
But I have to admire its elegance: merely deliver a box to Obama containing the severed head of Baucus, with "single-payer" branded into its forehead.
Extreme? Perhaps. Radical? Arguably. But it beats the Hell out of holding these demons' cloven hooves to the campfires of dissent.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Carol Paris for US President I says. We need more heros like the "Baucus 13" to stand up. We all need to stand up.
Why are we fighting to put Single payer back on the table? Shouldn't the focus be to have single payer be the ONLY option?
As much as I applaud the protesters for trying to punch some common sense into Baucus, I'm afraid the game is "fixed". I recommend the protesters join us in pushing for better representation and throwing these same old GDMFers out election after election.
This article is not accurate. Senator Bauccus does not "share the same goal" as the supporters of Single Payer. Bauccus wants his paymasters to continue making nice profits as they deny health care.
wantrealdemocracy, the author only reported Baucus's claimed position, which of course is a blatant lie. If we really shared the same goal, he wouldn't be censoring single payer. He's afraid of it for good reason. If the public knew what it offers and what it would cost, they would demand it and the insurance money faucet into his pocket would be shut off.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
How can one man block single payer in the Senate?
He is not even on the health Sub-Committee.
Put pressure on Kerry. Put pressure on Schumer. They are usually the first to complain and make noise. Have them make some real noise.
Put pressure on lesser members of the committee.
Move the whole thing to the Health,Labor and Pensions Committee. Kennedy is the head of that committee.
Take out ads portraying Backass as a fascist ...There is no better definition in the Senate.
Move the whole thing to the House. Fuck the Senate. they are too corrupt and obviously don't care about the American people.
I'm sure Chavez and Ahmadinejad would love to finance a people's alternative.
China is still socialist/communist. They should put single payer into their repayment terms -
Get the world involved and embarass the fuck out of the US Government.
Still think a non-governmental system is better. Why do we insist on Government involvement. Just give us the money and we'll set up our own system
I still think a barf-in or fart-in at the Senate would work wonders.It's relatively silent, non-violent and it's not against the law to be sick in the halls of congress
ducksawce: "Move the whole thing to the House."
There's one problem with your logic, it takes BOTH houses of Congress to pass a bill and send it to the President for a signature. Entirely removing it from the Senate would kill _any_ chance of reforming the current mess.
In another CommonDreams article about Carol Paris, the doctor from Maryland, she said of Single-payer, "No longer would physicians' staff have to spend hours dealing with multiple insurers on billing, no longer would patients have to do the same, and no longer would patients have to worry about which doctor is 'in network'".
That is actually one of the biggest expenses that _could_ be eliminated quite easily, even if we don't get rid of the insurance companies ... _everyone_ should be required to use the same form and accept the same tests to process claims. That way the doctors don't have to hire "insurance specialists" to make sure the each provider gets the correct paperwork, so the claims process isn't delayed or denied all together.
I also believe that the concept of "pre-existing condition" should be outlawed.
LIFE is a pre-existing condition.
Oh s**t, don't tell the insurance companies that ... they'll use it to deny _all_ coverage and just pocket _everything_ we're paying them.
Baucus will continue to stay the course with those who brung him - the insurance industry. If anyone thinks Baucus cares about people, they are nuts. We need to keep the pressure on the rest of the Senate and pressure our Representatives in the House to act. They are always much more responsive than the Senate.
one man decides for 300+million where's the democracy? what cowards the dumocracks
are!we need to call max the 4 million dollar man for each dollar he took as bribes er
campaign donations he took from special interests like the ins.industry the hmo's hospitals
etc.
It's a good start.
I hope these good folks in Montana, as well as all over, not only encourage Baucus, but threaten him with eviction from the US Congress if he doesn't come around to single payer. As the guy with his hands on the purse strings, he needs to be made to know that people are serious about what we need, and his job is nothing compared to the pain and ruin that befallen Americans because of our dysfunctional health insurance system.
Either Baucus comes around, or Baucus goes away. Can we get this chant going across the country?
Max Baucus has been senator since 1979. It's getting more obvious to Montanans that it's long time for Baucus to go. Baucus has until 2014 to complete his current term and he's counting on his constituents to completely forget about his assault on single payer advocates and even the idea of single payer healthcare. He ain't coming around. I think that the voters of Montana will find someone better to replace him and fight for single payer healthcare even if he or she just so happens to be a Republican and please don't tell me that Republicans don't support single payer healthcare because I've come across a few otherwise low down rednecks who are desperately begging for it once I gave them the details. In the meantime, Montana voters can get their current governor Schweitzer, who's supposed to be a populist progressive, to put forth a state-wide single payer for everyone in MT.
That's fine, but if Baucus is going to run again we should use his reticence to put single payer on the table against him.
Baucus is not the issue, the issue is getting Americans to muster just a little will. Targeting just one senator to take a fall will send a clear message to the rest that we are finally, at long last, serious enough to do something about getting repeatedly raped by the health insurance industry. This is one action against one senator in one issue. If we Americans can't even get that going then we're not really getting raped, we're willing participants in our own screwing.
I can't deny that I'm rather weak at trying to get the pols to listen. However, I will say one thing about them. The longer they stay in power, the more professional they become at taking it all for granted and become more "fixed" . Baucus, at least to me, is one of those old guards who are impossible to reform. I wouldn't be surprised if Baucus built long term monied relationships with Big Insurance/Pharma throughout the 80s and 90s even before this decade. On the other hand, it would be easier to shake freshman senators such as Mark Warner and James Webb because both are in their first term as senator and will need to find some way to respect their constituents until they feel "safe" that no one will run against them in subsequent elections or that there will be weak unknown candidates in their view. RichM on a post describe eloquently what the Democrats will often do to pretend that they're for the people and yet let the corps win silently and I'm afraid he's correct so far.
In the case of Baucus, I strongly believe that it's high time he was given a surprise defeat in 2014 just as we saw with the senior Republicans in 2006 and 2008. The only way I can see Baucus changing is if his senate colleagues in the party, in particular the newer Democratic Senators, get shaken but even that's iffy. No Montanan who has posted here has indicated any faith of Baucus turning around for the better.
Ted Markow knows that getting the right representation is no guarantee but hitting our current misrepresentation and doing our best to force them to listen isn't a crime even if the pols want to play fascism against us. By your definition, Mark Warner is already an established Senator. Unlike Webb, Warner was given an easy pass by the GOP because the GOP knew that they could count on Warner's corporatist support to give them what they wanted. Warner has supported NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO, etc ..., has supported prolonging the wars and even campaigned with Mccain until the polls showed Obama doing betters than Mccain in VA, and as you know strongly opposes single payer. Still, we need to put pressure on all our pols.
All of you putting yourselves on the line out there, thank you,thank you.
All we have to do is have a dozen people block traffic at major intersections all day, each day until we get what we want, whatever we want.
The problem is informing the people that they need to do that. In a democracy, you would use your airwaves. But we do not own our airwaves. Have you ever seen a demonstration announced on TV or radio? Not unless it's for the stupid "tea parties" Rush Limbaugh was paid to advertise.
We can't even get in touch with the people. A tiny minority is having their way with us. Media control is responsible for all our troubles. Our politicians cannot do what we want, because they're scared that the media will end their political careers.
America's capital is Tel Aviv. That's where decisions are made for us by media giants.
I wouldn't blame Tel Aviv completely for lack of single payer in this country. Where do you get the connection between the Isralis and lack of single payer in this country? If Tel Aviv were actually the capital, they would have stated the obvious. I understand that the USA offers plenty more "generous" support to Israel against the Palestinians, something they would never do with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, or even India but blaming Israel as the sole cause for lack of single payer in this country is wrong. It's our lack of proper representation that's to blame. There's a limit as to how far we can keep begging on Congress critters and senators to listen and then we have only one other option, vote them out and try someone new and keep voting them out until you get the right representation.
Hello Maxpayne
Israel is responsible for EVERYTHING evil. We all know that, don't we? Jesus, if this is an example of "left analysis," we're going to have capitalism for the next 6000 years.
Not possible. The earth won't last through another 50 years of capitalism.
We need to have PEOPLE before PROFITS. The predatory capitalists who run these FOR PROFIT insurance conglomerates do not CARE how many people they KILL as they choke off medical treatment for those who actually NEED the insurance they buy. Insurance companies only want to insure those who do NOT need any health care. So, we need to TAKE the INSURANCE OUT of healthcare and put in a SINGLE PAYER system like MOST of the civilized countries in the world already have.
And YES, MOST Americans have been led to believe that their health care is the best because of the incredible level of propaganda we are fed by the corporate media. Well, we are THIRTY SEVENTH according to the World Health Organization. First in these ranking: France, Italy, San Marino, Andorra, Malta, Singapore and Spain. Before the US is Chile, Israel and Costa Rica.
Organizing for America (Obama's organization) is having meetings this weekend to plan a day of National Health Service June 27th. We in LA are trying to have this be a day of SINGLE PAYER OUTREACH to EDUCATE people on this issue BEFORE Congress gives it all away in corporate subsidies to the insurance companies that are funding their campaigns. GET INVOLVED. BE HEARD. PLAN AN EVENT for your area for that day. Physicians for National Healthcare Plan have a lot of resources to link to on their website. Google.///
"GET INVOLVED. BE HEARD. PLAN AN EVENT for your area for that day. Physicians for National Healthcare Plan have a lot of resources to link to on their website."
That is not a bad idea but I don't think that it will stop our current Congress from selling out. This energy would be better channelled towards putting forth better candidates who will actually listen and understand and not put profits before people. The game is "fixed" in Washington right now until we vote them out and keep replacing them until we actually have overall better representation.
If we can afford billions to bail out the banksters, and billions to feed the military juggernaut, and billions to rescue the US auto industry, we ought to be able to cough up a few thousand to send our politicians to Obedience School-- starting with the Top Dog.
· Yr Obd't Servant
The Obama-Baucus healthcare 'fix' - the 'fix' is in?
Keep trying, if at first we don't secede...
MEDICARE FOR ALL
PRIVATE HEALTH CARE IS TERRORISM
Every year 18,000 Americans die because they don't have health insurance. In other words, our conservatives KILL 6 times as many people every year as died in 9-11. Which doesn't include those who die because of inadequate insurance coverage (the theme of Michael Moore's movie "Sicko.")
Can we convince the American people that the Republican Party is a terrorist conspiracy? It's the simple truth.
Still think our government is just fine, just needs a little 'propping up' in some places?
When we go through a charade of 'electiing' people to do the people's bidding and the day after the election the people have to beg the winner of the election to 'help' them, then I wouldn't know a broken system if I saw one but I do know that the actions of baucus and obama make them the poster childs of a very broken down government of which the original owners have abdicated their ownership, soldout lock stock and barrel.