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Published on Wednesday, March 4, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Obama's Health Care Summit Tomorrow, But Where Are Single Payer Advocates?
In 2003, Barack Obama addressed an audience of AFL-CIO members and spoke firmly about the health care problems of Americans. "I
happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health-care plan,"
he said to applause. "I see no reason why the United States of America,
the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its
Gross National Product on health care, cannot provide basic health insurance
to everybody."
Here's the clip:
During the 2008 Presidential campaign Obama was confronted with this same issue and responded with the following qualification of his stance on a single payer, universal system:
And when subsequently interviewed on the Today Show, he reiterated this qualification:
So we must ask, on the eve of the Health Care Summit in Washington, why has Obama - now President of the United States - not only fallen silent on the single payer solution, but actively blocked participation for those who would advocate for a solution he once lauded as ideal?
Physicians for a National Healthcare Plan (PNHP) have put together an action alert so that you can tell both the White House and your elected representatives: Let Single Payer In!
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28 Comments so far
Show All'So we must ask, on the eve of the Health Care Summit in Washington, why has Obama - now President of the United States - not only fallen silent on the single payer solution, but actively blocked participation for those who would advocate for a solution he once lauded as ideal?'
Because he's a liar and a con man?
This is how it looks today: on this issue of single payer national health insurance, as on the issue of Afghanistan, Obama has proven to be a bust. He may have some long term strategy that he hopes to reach through this series of half measures and quarter measures and eighth measures but, working as he does in a totally corrupt political system which relies on Big Money above everything else, probably not. If you do not eliminate private insurance companies from health care, absolutely nothing of any real substance will be accomplished.
That's the crux, isn't it. The private insurance companies are not going to give up their fortunes, come hell or high water. I firmly believe that if Obama were to go against them, he would be one dead president. We need a president with a lot of courage, not just brains and skill in political maneuvering.
He's paying back the medical monopoly for the millions of dollars they donated to him to keep their fat asses riding on top that coach of privilege mentioned at the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities....once one scrambles up on top, he kicks at those trying to get on board....now Obama is on board.
OK, let's be civil, logansafi. This is not a Rush Limbaugh site.
It is up to ALL of us to push this issue through....this is NOT going to be EASY!! There are $$BILLIONS$$ working against Universal Healthcare, but this is probably our LAST CHANCE to get it done!! We must be RELENTLESS and keep letting Congress and President Obama hear from us!!
My family just lost a beautiful 20 year old to a drunk driver, but he may be the LUCKY ONE, as his surviving friend's body was crushed and now his family can't find a long term care facility that will take him because he didn't have insurance!!! This is UNACCEPTABLE in America!! This is the ULTIMATE PATRIOTIC ISSUE!! We are NOT peasants.....we own this country, not the Corporations who profit from our misfortunes!!
Single payer has been proven to be the most cost-effective system of health care delivery. Among all the proposals on the table, it is the only one that is not primarily in business to make a profit. Single-payer's only aim is to deliver health care - efficiently, fairly, and of good quality to everyone.
The for-profit health industry lobbyists outnumber legislators - I've read that the ratio is 4 lobbyists per legislator. That is an amazing amount of pressure, considering that our campaign finance system puts politicians up for sale to the highest bidder - legally. It's also an incredible waste of money that could be well applied to actual health care.
There is a possibility that Pres. Obama really wants single-payer, but is counting on us, the public to "make him do it".
It's worth a try - we have nothing to lose by exerting public pressure, and our chance at getting decent health care is lost if we do nothing.
Let's all call the White House and express our strong support of H.R. 676. Barack Obama, Sen. Baucus and the rest need to know that the public has had it with tinkering with a dead, useless "system", trying to give the illusion of reform. You can't reform something that's a ruin. Time to rebuild.
It does our cause NO GOOD AT ALL to diss Obama. The powers arrayed against him.....AND US..... are ENORMOUS, but the American people can overcome them, if we work together!! Focus on the POSITIVE and how we can accomplish our goal!!
I suspect that the naysayers and criticizers are the ones who sit on their butts and never lift a hand for any cause outside their own trivial interests!
Exactly.
"It does our cause NO GOOD AT ALL to diss Obama."
Oh, please. Like we need to be setting MORE boundaries on what we can and can not do. As if it's not hard enough to get people to wake up and do anything.
It's time to stop waiting for and expecting Obama to demand our rights. He's going to shill for corporate America--plain and simple. We have to be loud and disruptive to disuade him of that notion. Or at least make him pay a price. If that's rude and obnixious--well, then it's all for a good cause anyway.
how come Obama's defenders never argue the case on the merits? It's always some vague stuff about "sticking together" or "it's too early" along with some spite vs. critics. Obama himself just ignores his progressive critics, as if we were a paltry annoyance.
Let's be a bigger annoyance. If we can't have a truly functional, single payer or equivalent system, then why should Michelle and Barack sleep well at night. Medicare works for the elderly. It could work for all of us. Rattle their windows and shake down their walls!
I am a naysayer and criticizer with a butt that is oft lifted for the common good, thank you. One has to do some thinking first to know what the goal is and how to get there so one can know where to move one's butt.
We are not dissing Obama. I am relieved that he is President and approve of several things he has done. I wish him much success in these endeavors. Other policies are drifting towards the paths set by Bush and others before him. It does not help him or us if we give up our responsibility to learn, to think critically, to speak up and to organize.
Joe
Shouldn't Obama be the one worried about not dissing us? (you know, I didn't mean for that sentence to be a joke--but now that I read it, I can't help but laugh)
This is going to have to be something that we organize outside of Obamaland to make happen. The Big Insurance and Big Pharma lobbyists are doing a really good job of being heard, but an even better job at crowding out any discussions or alternatives that might cut into their reveune streams.
But the fact is they are riding a shrinking pool of customers. If an accurate snapshot of who is unisured was taken today, it would be in excess of 60 million. It's even worse when you factor in the "underinsured" (which is basically paying premiums for nothing). Small Business has NEVER gotten any love from the status quo, and more and more large firms have been "jobbed" by it (see the Big 2 1/2). Just WHO can afford to stand with Big Insurance and Big Pharma if we launch a protracted and very public battle?
I don't think "Harry and Louise 2.0" (or whatever ad campaign they attempt to use this time) will be as potent or as effective this time around, but it will STILL take considerable effort to barge into the conference room and insist that Single Payer be in the conversation.
I retired from teaching in 2002 and moved to Spain.....In almost seven years, I have paid "0" for my healthcare.....If I have a severe cold, I can go to the pharmacy and they will give me something that will work.
If I have an emergency and have to be taken to a hospital, I will be admitted immediately and taken care of.....if there is a bill at the end, it will be worked out or forgiven. An American girl was in intensive care for almost eight weeks and in the main hospital for another 3 weeks and was an outpatient for over one month.....Her bill at the end was "0" and her medications were paid for by the government of Catalunya. (TRUE STORY)
I read that the University of Chicago Hospital was laying off workers not because they had a financial problem, but, "We have to keep expanding our institution and keep up with technology." Give me a break, Healthcare, in America, is one of the most profitable industries and drug companies love doctors.
Barack Obama was a lawyer as are 80% of the politicians. Lawyers become politicians to "Network" and make "More Money".....They could care less about the American People, altruism died decades ago. Barack Obama is funneling trllions of dollars to Wall Street and he is about to funnel trillions more to the Medical Industry....
When he talks about the 1.2 trillion dollar debt, he is continuing the deception. The National Debt will be 11.9 TRILLION DOLLARS by the end of 2009, it is currently 10.7 TRILLION DOLLARS. No, he did not create this mess, but he isn't trying to stop it: Iraq will continue with 50,000 soldiers (Without an end) and Afghanistan will increase by, probably, 30,000 and none of the 100,000 plus mercenaries have been disarmed and sent home to their countries.
What is more important, rebuilding the United States of America or controlling the flow of OIL from the Caspian Sea and the Middle East? With over 1000 military bases, you know the answer.
If I were President, I would cut 50% of those bases and return the men to the United States to help rebuild the United States and serve and protect the people of the United States. There is not one country that could or would invade the United States not now or 100 years.
Healthcare is a football that politicians love to pass around and garner favor from the American People just like Education.........But nothing ever gets done!
I am sure there are some problems with health care in Spain, but my one experience with it was luminous. How wonderful when one is sick that the illness is the main problem for the patient - not the money, not demeaning treatment, not heartless attitudes. I am sure it is much more rewarding for the medical staff also to be able to concentrate on their professions instead being overworked and distracted by revenue collection and a maze of regulations, restrictions. The medical personnel in Spain were so much more warm and relaxed than medical staff here, generally. The bill in a private hospital for an array of tests and treatments was very reasonable, probably less than 10% of what such treatment would cost in the US.
Joe
We've got to organize and PUSH him towards single payer. He will listen. He's said it over and over again: he wants us to push him on issues.
If he is open to a position why should he want the public to "push him"???
He can simply call some proponents (like practically any practicing doctor at this point), look at systems in other countries, or look up some opinion surveys.
This "he need us to push him" is a preposterous notion. Sounds more like the tempermant of a Hopi rain god or something.
---USAn---
Politicians are opportunists. Or to put it more politely, politics is the art of the possible.
Joe
He will listen, all right. He will listen to those who push with money behind them. That would be health insurance companies.
He is a good politician. Too bad for us.
Obama is the one with the bully pulpit. He should be the one leading the way for us. We elected him based on the lies he told us during the campaign.
Those video snippits tell the whole story. Elect me and I'll do exactly what I'm paid to do by the highest bidder.
AFL-CIO won his support until the health insurance industry bid higher!
This series of clips is worthy of being on John Stewart. It is a study in what happens even to the better politicians. In the first clip Obama says that first "we" must get back the White House. Done. And, he says, "we" must get back the Congress. Done. Then later he re-writes the history. Thank goodness for documentation.
The problem is that nobody can get into high office here without first selling off their soul bit by bit. The only way that Obama will support single payer at this point is if there is such a fuss that he can tell the insurance companies that there will be a rebellion if he doesn't. The only way the Congress will support single payer is if we can create such a demand that they would risk losing their jobs if they do not.
So once again, as tiring as it is - the ball is in our court.
Joe
Here's what I appended to a Progressive Democrats of America petition to Obama I signed this morning, favoring the support of H.R. 676:
Most of us out here far from the corruption and chicanery of the Beltway
know very well you've never had the slightest intention of promoting a
single-payer system. We realize you're in the back pocket of Big Pharma
and the big insurers and pay no more attention to single-payer than Bush
ever did. This is just one of the ways you've fooled many progressives
into believing you're on our side with this issue. So far, you haven't
been. You're far more interested in keeping those CEOs rich and happy, the
same ones who have made our health care a mockery. Under their direction
we have the 37th best health care in the world. Is that a distinction you
really want to protect and defend? It would appear so, unless we drop to
50th place in a few years because you refuse to seriously even think about
single-payer. Thus far, Mr. Obama, thanks for nothing. Go ahead, make me a
believer in the "change" that was your campaign slogan. Because I see no
evidence for it yet.
Today's Daily Kos website is reporting that Congressman John Conyers, sponsor of HR 676, "Medicare for All," is attending President Obama's Health Care Summit tomorrow.
This is reported by Cynthia Martin, Chief of Staff for Congressman Conyers.
See today's Rec Diary submitted by nyceve.
Er, Mr. Obama, you ARE now the president, we DO have a democrat house and senate. So WHERE is our single payer health care system? Seems to have disappeared. I wonder how much else that you promised us will just disappear.
According to a relaease from PNHP, "Dr. Oliver Fein, president of Physicians for a National Health Program, has been invited to participate in tomorrow's White House summit on health care. He will therefore be joining Rep. John Conyers in the meeting as a strong advocate for a single-payer national health program."
It is unlikely that Obama can force Single Payer through Congress at this point given the Repug opposition and the power of the Insurance industry. I think he will set the road to it in place as a program along side private insurance for those who cannot afford coverage. As this could become a voluntary program with which private insurance cannot compete, it will eventually expand to become the dominant coverage.
The Jaded Prole
I just got an email from someone who works in Qatar and was involved in an accident. He was in the hospital for 8 days, had bone surgery, drugs and physical therapy. At check out time he asked about the bill and the nurse looked astonished. "We don't charge for accidents, sir".
I think that we are so used to being treated badly by the privatized and feudal medical care system with its competing little centers of interest that we have accepted it on some level. We cannot really imagine another way. Our system is inhumane and extortionistic. You save your life only by paying lots of cash. If you don't have it, you have the option of becoming an indentured serf for many years to pay it back.
Micheal Moore tried to show this in his movie. But I would love to see a full documentary that contrasts health care set-ups world wide, both good and bad.
Single payer universal health care is not a utopian dream. It is practical and exists and works in many places all over the world.
Women and men in Qatar wear long loose clothes and head coverings. But they have peace and medical care and women in high positions. What is freedom?
Joe
If President Obama was really for single payer health care but reluctant to support it publicly( because he did not think he had the support in Congress) --why is it that he will not allow Quentin Young and other physicians supporting Single Payer to attend his so called summit today?
How can we trust a politician who tells the labor movement in 2003 that we first need to take over the white house and congress and THEN we can begin the discussion and now tells us that it is totally off the table?
The American people for single payer should hold a DIE-IN and block the freeways, the Congress and major intersections around this country in a series of demos around the land. Until big business sees the power of the masses they will never concede control. Now that we have a FRIEND in the white house we need to hold him accountable to what he promised.
Bill Walz
Keep up the drum-beat. I just called the President's public comment line - (202)456-1111. I told the President,
"I believe the single-payer system is the only viable way to resolve the abysmal healthcare problem in this country. the insurance-based, for-profit system is a travesty. We must join the rest of the civilized world with a government coordinated unversal system. Single-payer advocates must be listened to at the healthcare summit."
Now - everyone who believes this must contact the President and your congresspersons and your newspapers and your talk radio shows, and make this happen - "From the ground up" as the president has been so fond of saying, as the kind of government he believes in. Now let him prove it by responding to the people who are going bankrupt, not getting needed healthcare, even dying as a result of this abomination of a for-profit healthcare system. Healthcare is a human right and a social responsibility.