WASHINGTON - JUNE 22 - What a difference a movie makes.  Michael Moore's "SiCKO" is breathing new life into the movement for non-profit national health insurance: "Enhanced Medicare for All."

Energized by "SiCKO," Progressive Democrats of America is intensifying its campaign in support of HR 676, which would establish single-payer Medicare for All.  The House bill – authored by PDA advisory board member Rep. John Conyers – was endorsed by Michael Moore at a press conference Wednesday on Capitol Hill.  HR 676 already has  75 co-sponsors.

PDA activists will be out in force this summer leafleting for HR 676 at "SiCKO" screenings nationwide, beginning with sneak previews this Saturday in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Cleveland and many other cities.  Contact Diane Shamis (845-661-3754) for more details.

The Conyers bill/HR 676 is endorsed by dozens of labor, civil rights and consumer organizations, as well as thousands of physicians who have witnessed the takeover of healthcare by private insurance companies.

"Over a period of decades," said PDA director Tim Carpenter, "we've watched Democratic leaders' commitment to national health insurance decline as campaign donations from insurance corporations have increased."

Carpenter continued: "SiCKO is a shot in the arm for HR 676, a bill that addresses our healthcare system's central problem: That for-profit insurers treat and cure nobody while sucking billions of dollars out of the system in bureaucracy, paperwork, advertising, sales commissions and exorbitant profits and executive salaries."

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Progressive Democrats of America is a grassroots PAC that works both inside the Democratic Party and outside in movements for peace and justice. Our goal: Extend the victory of Nov. 2006 into a permanent, progressive majority.  PDA's advisory board includes six members of Congress and activist leaders such as Tom Hayden, Cindy Sheehan, Medea Benjamin and Rev. Lennox Yearwood. More info: http://pdamerica.org/. 

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