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TechnoratiSenate Speech Heralds New Social Movement
This week the sincere effort of millions of people across the nation once again proved effective in the face of determined opposition from the White House and Congress, as single payer health reform reached another milestone in its historic journey.
When the Senate initiated its debate on health insurance reform, Senator Bernie Sanders offered a single-payer amendment, with co-sponsors Sherrod Brown and Roland Burris. Initially Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid skipped over it, allowing other amendments to come to the floor instead.
But nationwide events on International Human Rights Day, the delivery of paper "bodies" to the senate offices, non-violent civil disobiedience including nine arrests at Senator Schumer's office, and hundreds of thousands of emails and phone calls and faxes to the Senate evidently changed Reid's mind.
When Sanders introduced his amendment the Senator from Oklahoma, Dr. Coburn, rose according to the rules of the Senate to insist that the bill be read in full. It was estimated that reading the 767-page bill would take days, stalling a galloping Senate process.
We wondered: Could this be an unexpected gift? If Senator Lieberman could make an intransigent stand on behalf of the insurance companies, would Sanders make a stand on behalf of the health of the people?
Reading the bill would prompt our movement to swing into action yet again. We would invite the nation to tune in to C-SPAN to hear how a national single payer health system would provide comprehensive high-quality health care to all citizens. Yet Coburn's maneuver had its effect.
Reid demanded that Sanders withdraw the amendment, for the Senate timetable leading up to Christmas could not be delayed. Besides insurance reform, there was the pressing issue of funding the wars.
Within 3 hours Sanders agreed. In return he got 30 minutes on the Senate floor.
Sanders' speech was riveting. He spoke the words that we have been waiting to hear for so long. He spoke about the beauty and simplicity of Medicare for All. He spoke about having the courage to stand up to the medical-industrial complex which profits at the expense of human suffering.
Most importantly, Sanders spoke about the national movement for single payer being led by nurses, doctors, medical students, faith and labor organizations and people across the land of all backgrounds and beliefs. He declared that this strong movement is not going away and he announced that we will succeed.
So we will remember December 16th, 2009 as a turning point in the struggle for health care justice. Single payer started this year "off the table." But the accumulating efforts of millions of people delivered it to the floor of the United States Senate.
To win single-payer health reform it will take many more speeches on the floor of Congress. And the only force that will propel Congress forward is a great social movement. In 2009 we have seen that movement rising up - and getting results.
Every day more people see that an effective and just health system is already at hand: a single-payer national health program modeled on the Medicare system. And every day that the White House and Congress delay single-payer reform, people suffer needlessly and die preventable deaths. Yet the Senate blunders on, with a colossal gift to the insurance industry.
It is time for the health of human beings to prevail. It is time to end the insurance cartel. Please join us as we continue forge the movement that will win Medicare for All.
Onward to single payer.
42 Comments so far
Show AllNice words, but Bernie should have made them read the whole damn bill.
Unless Medicare is vastly improved, such an option is useless. Medicare needs to be updated to serve ordinary people without forcing them to buy add-on policies or pay exorbitant co-pays - and it should pay providers a fair compensation for their services. Ignoring the glaring problems - which have been unaddressed over the years - will give us a failed program of little benefit to anyone but the 'healthcare insurers' - those who have been stealing from us through extortion for the last 30 or 40 years... National Healthcare is the ONLY answer - everything else is pure BS...
I agree, and certainly in Bernie's summary it was obvious that his bill would have been vastly updated -- no co-pays, no deductibles, 2.2% tax hike -- dental and vision.
One of the provisions of the current Senate bill is to cut the reimbursement rate for docs. I think mandates-no/mandates-yes Obama and his cronies are trying to destroy Medicare.
The problem is NOT Medicare - the problem is 'fee for service.' Medicare IS single-payer. I pay $66/month for my part of Kaiser (a non-profit) health care as a retiree and have found their care to be terrific - caring, compassionate and comprehensive, with very modest copays ($30/visit, treatment). I paid $200 for my double hernia operation last year by a phenomenal surgeon. My wife died two years ago after suffering from breast cancer for nine years. Kaiser spend an ENORMOUS amount of money on her care with staff members deeply caring for and about her. Without Medicare/Kaiser we would be road kill. True - Medicare could be improved overall, but it is a good place to start - why reinvent the wheel?
I agree nobody wants to focus on the prices that a fee for service model has delivered. The simple truth is the average person cannot afford to go to a Dr. without Ins. anymore. Drs. are also somewhat responsible for the mess and many understand this.
If Medicare is a perfectly good 'wheel', why do you have Kaiser? Medicare costs three different ways and does not cover the basics like eyes, ears, teeth, and annual check-ups. It's currently suitable for emergencies and long-term care; it does absolultely nothing for healthy seniors like me.
Insofar as it's a model for lower-cost administration and being 'single-payer', it's worth mentioning, but it's high approval rating probably has to do with it being the only option for many people.
Yes, BernI Have a Dream's drivel mirrors that of the Obamanible, when we could have had The VOTE and for that matter, deferred one For MORE WAR the day BEFORE YESTERDAY! Instead, We Shall Overcome Odubya and his Dumbocrats, "someday"!! Yes, We Shall !!!
He should have limited his bill to 3 pages, with a one paragraph summary, which was all that was really necessary.
Lieberman did not flinch but Sanders did. Ditto house leaders like Weiner who voted for the House bill when push came to shove. I guess that it is a small victory to at least have some representation in a Congress as corrupt as ours is but our advocates in Congress are not yet strong enough to even stand up in battle yet alone prevail. Kuccinich is the only one who even comes close.
Like they say in basketball;
you don't score if you don't shoot.
Are you willing to watch the team lose
sitting quietly in the stands?
WOW!!!!!! Margaret has a good heart but these people in Washington will be dead and buried before single payer gets put on the table....greed wins the day in the US. This experiment has failed...Perhaps some hybrid sociolist reform will evolve once the system, as it now stands with enormous debt, collapses. I mean what will it take? We easily could be picking up the dead bodies in the street beforre long. Look around people, for as the song goes "there is something happening here buy it is not exactly clear...." Obama is really just a smooth salesman with more of the same old product.
"Margaret has a good heart but these people in Washington will be dead and buried before single payer gets put on the table...."
Hmmm...no, we all will be dead and buried long before that. And the cause of our death will be - you guessed it: lack of healthcare!
In view of the 45 years that elapsed between the advent of Medicare and Obamacare, it is more likely we will all die of old age before the issue is addressed again in 2055...if it is ever addressed again. Obamacare gives the insurance companies lots of corporate welfare that will enhance their ability to bribe Obama and Congress.
How can Lieberman be compared to Sanders? Lieberman closed the deal. Sanders was prevented from closing any deal by Baucus and Obama months ago.
Sanders was not prevented from closing the deal he freely chose to withdraw his amendment.If a person has princibles and trully beleives in something than no amount of threats and cajoling should cause you back off.I firmly believe that if one only has princibles when it is convenient then one does not really have any princibles at all
"it is more likely we will all die of old age before the issue is addressed again in 2055...if it is ever addressed again"
This is an unfortunate reality. If this goes down to defeat, none of the people currently in Congress will touch it for the rest of their tenure. And Obama and the Ds will be swept out.
Don't even think that a third party candidate will fill the void. It will be the final GOP/Corporate takeover.
It's crucial that this pass out of the Senate, as flawed as it is. It still has to be reconciled, there's an opportunity at that point to restore some of what was traded away. And once in place, it will be modified. Social Security didn't spring, full blown from Congress in it's current form. It took a decade to adjust it to where it works. Same for MediCare.
Just getting the system set up will expose the worst of the flaws to remediation. I'd be amazed if Mandates survive the court challenges that are already being prepared. And there are many other parts that will come up bad as it is put into action. It's much easier to fix concrete problems than imaginary ones.
But those fixes can't come if it fails to clear Congress.
As for Sanders, he didn't fail to close the deal, he was bought off.
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=30b2a415-4ade-4367-af7d-4c3306e31b58
He got $10 billion for community clinics, expanding their coverage by 25 million people.
Don't get me wrong. Bernie Sanders is a personal hero of mine and this was a shrewd deal on his part. HE KNOWS that Single Payer is a fantasy, a third rail that has a very small support base in the general public (28% in recent polls) and almost Zero support in Congress, he put it up, KNOWING that it would be shot down and he extracted a deal by using that tactic. That's a brilliant maneuver, Good on ya Bernie.
Lie berman, OTOH, is slime (and as a CT resident, I apologize for this bas+ard's very existance. We tried to retire him last round but Rove and the RCCC beat us with illegal money and troops).
The only reason that he has so much clout, I figure, is AIPAC. He's their boy, through and through. And they amplify his ability to effect Congress. He's reversed his own stands on things such as expanding MediCare, he was for it three months ago, now he's killed it...The only good explanation is that the more powerful he is, the better it is for AIPAC, so they are behind him 100%
Margaret, your heart is in the right place, but I wonder who agrees with you? Even Common Dreams, probably the most free-swinging lefty blog on the web, didn't see fit to run this great clarion call for reform you are lauding.
Poet
Then these Dreamers have lost their courage and morality.
I'm with her whole heartedly.
Universal Health Care is the only moral option.
Talk is cheap, and what happened is that Bernie Sanders folded. No roll call vote, no big publicity splash to help put pressure on Congress to expand Medicare to everyone, nothing. Just a little speech. Apparently the health of Americans, and our one chance to have a vote on single-payer, was not important enough to justify spending a few days reading the bill aloud in the Senate. There were more important things, like war funding, waiting for action.
Sanders deprived us of our chance to force our Senators to put their votes for/against single payer on the record, so we could identify our enemies clearly for the next elections. Sanders caved, and helped his colleagues cover their butts one more time.
Like every other "progressive" in Congress except Kucinich, Sanders is all talk and no action, no guts.
So Rahm Emanuel and Obama treat him with the contempt he deserves.
"Sanders deprived us of our chance to force our Senators to put their votes for/against single payer on the record, so we could identify our enemies clearly for the next elections. Sanders caved, and helped his colleagues cover their butts one more time."
---------------------------------
That paragraph is troubling at so many levels.
1. How did he deprive us? If anybody deprived us of that it would have been the suckers that put him and the rest of them in office along with the corporations that now own each and every single one of those that the suckers put in office.
2. How did he force the others to put their votes for/against? Don't the others have a mind of their own? They sure do show to have it when it comes to taking payola and batting for their corporate sponsors. Please see one Mark Bacus.
3. If you don't know who our "enemies" are by now, you simply aren't paying attention and a speech or a vote ain't gonna identify them either.
4. Sanders caved? Are you really sure of that? What gives you the idea that he is not part of the same enclave that his "colleagues" are a part of and solely where he is to represent corporate powers?
"This week the sincere effort of millions of people across the nation once again proved effective in the face of determined opposition from the White House and Congress, as single payer health reform reached another milestone in its historic journey."
So, does this mean that we now have Universal Healthcare? Wow! Power to the people!
~sarcasm off~
It is extremely sorrowful, as well as being a disgrace and being simply beyond contempt, that an amendment that involved the proposal of a single payer system was not even read onto the Senate floor. Yet the authors of this piece believe that this is evidence of some progress being shown by a country which is the only advanced country in the world which can boast that it does not have universal health care.
My wife has Parkinson's Disease. If she were to lose her job [which is, alas, all too possible in this precarious economy] she very well would not be able to pick up insurance from her future employer which would pay for her prescription drugs which help her to [somewhat] control her symptoms [such as the tremors and the ever present fatigue] because the less than benevolent insurance companies in this country would say that they would not be able to insure her because she has a "pre-existing condition." No other industrialized country on the face of this earth [as well as some not so industrialized such as Cuba] can make that claim. But yet what is allegedly supposed to be the richest country in the world still balks at even discussing a single payer system in its legislative body while never hesitating to give even more money to sustain the war machine overseas.
The priorities of this country are in need of serious major repair when more attention is paid to killing brown people in under developed countries than it is in saving people by making sure that people's basic health care needs are met in the land of the free [where, alas, the cost of health care is anything but free. The cost of sustaining and implementing health care would certainly be able to be done if the U.S. spent far less on its bombers which would then pave the way for a universal health care system.
If the congress of this country really cared about its citizens, then it would get its collective hands on T.R. Reid's must-read book The Healing of America: A Global Quest For Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care in order to discover how other democratic countries have met and cared for the health needs of its citizens.
Dear Dr Flowers: Your heart is clearly in the right place. But what about your head? The problem is a medical monopoly that bleeds us dry. Without systemic changes, single-payer will continue that process.
Have you looked into functional medicine, also known as natural medicine or nutritional medicine? If you think its OK to prescribe proton pump inhibitors without doing a gut pH challlenge test you are a big part of the problem.
Talk to Dr Mark Hyman, Dr Jonathan Wright (Tahoma Clinic), or Dr Thomas Levy of Vitamin C fame; then look into the heart of internal medicine for solutions.
Oh yeah, stop the FDA from removing low cost, effective treatments from the market. In their words, it's not fair for pharmaceutical companies to compete with non-patentable substances. See: "FDA bans pyridoxamine"
Good Luck!
Were single payer passed, there'd be a lot of motivation to reign in Pharma.
First of all, the problem is as much AMA, equipment suppliers and Big Ag as it is Big Pharma or insurance companies. Insurance company horrors are a symptom of out of control costs, not the problem. Second of all, once it's passed there will be no incentive to change anything. They had an opportunity to reign in Big Pharma and the Obama administration didn't even want to try. The prescription drug bill from Hell prohibited negotiating prices and many Dems supported it, saying when they got control they'd change it (including Obama, altho he wasn't there to vote for it)
Have you not seen the TV ads for testing supplies, wheelchairs, etc? Just buy it, they will bill Medicare.
People have to understand--There Is An Alternative to the medical monopoly.
USP in one context or another, is the only moral and sustainable solution to provide health care to american citizens. Anyone who has studied the issue knows this. Of course the pols know this too, but they have chosen to promote the opportunities of the insurance corp to turn a profit over the well-being and very lives of citizens.
When the pols come around for support next time we need to pin them down. On camera. In writing. And if they lie, we need to recall or impeach them.
Millions of our friends and family members have had abbreviated lives due to profit-driven health care. Due to profit-driven insurance corporations. These murderers make the 9/11 'terrorists' look like petty criminals.
If the corporate shills currently controlling the Dem party won't support this, we need to move on. I'm long past ready to move on myself, but I think we need to be as adept at using political theatre as they are in order to bring about a mass exodus of voters from the D ticket to something genuinely progressive.
I wish Bernie had had the courage of his convictions. But he is a lonely figure in the midst of a sea of corruption. And he provided an opening. It's up to US to provide him with support and reinforcements.
Basta!!! The struggle goes on.
I understand it would have taken 10 hours to read it.
Are the authors serious when they say "galloping Senate process"?
I guess if your riding a sloth it might be considered galloping.
This article is definitely making the best of a sick situation.
The senate gallops like a horse with two rear ends:
Democrat and Republican.
"He spoke about having the courage to stand up to the medical-industrial complex which profits at the expense of human suffering."
We need to remember that what we know as the "Military Industrial Complex" was, before advice and editing, described by Eisenhower as the "Military Congressional Industrial Complex." ---the same should go with this "health care" debacle--- "The Medical Congressional Industrial Complex." Congress itself, Congressional men and women, PROFIT AT THE EXPENSE OF HUMAN SUFFERING.
Excuse me, what gains? what movement? I don't see any evidence of it. The Senate bill is worse than doing nothing. It's a pretense of movement. It's like being in a parked car and feeling like you're moving because the car next to you backed up.
LOL Very, very well said.
(And the situation itself would actually be funny -- if it weren't so devastatingly tragic.)
Is it too late to somehow demand that the bill be read and televised? I would like to wake up from this nightmare...'People say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one'...there is huge power in that thought alone.
I´m 62 so I remember sit ins as a peaceful tactic to fight for civil rights in the 60´s. I think it´s time now that we use a tactic of DIE INS. When you come down with a terminal or outrageously expensive disease go to an insurance executive´s house and die there.
jbentham
ah: i've wanted to do this also but hoped to find a way to raise a literal dying stink in senate chambers....
Yeah euthenasia bombers!!! Terminal torpedoes!
No kidding, Green Mike.
Senator Sanders also failed to let the reading of his amendment occur. He should have held is ground. Where is the movement? Where is the strength? Where is the commitment?
Either action would have made him a hero, and we'd have a chance to move forward on single-payer, Medicare for All.
There's still a chance, Senator Sanders!
Senator Sanders could STILL vote no!! Unfortunately, I don't have "kill the bill" on my "to do" list except to cooperate when and where I can with those who do have it on their list. Some of you who have pressing hard on "kill the bill" get Vermonters to flood Sanders with communications on this. LET'S TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY TO GET THIS BILL KILLED.
Bob Haiducek, Bob the Health and Health Care Advocate
http://www.medicareforall.org
We can all do what I call "help get care".
http://www.medicareforall.org/pages/helpgetcare
Have any of you folks been listening to the Republican Senators during the debates? Some of their points are on the mark, but there are even more points that they could make about how bad this bill is.
Take a look at this list and listen to the audio.
http://www.medicareforall.org/pages/hcreform
The Congress' plan is BAD, BAD, BAD.
As you review that list of comparisons and listen to the audio, pay particular attention to what happened in the state of New York. It is astonishing how bad this bill is.
As a result of the Senate debate(s), I may be adding a little more astonishment to it soon, but it's already pretty amazingly bad with the list that I have so far.
Bob Haiducek, Bob the Health and Health Care Advocate
http://www.medicareforall.org
We can all do what I call "help get care".
http://www.medicareforall.org/pages/helpgetcare
JH wrote: "Excuse me, what gains? what movement? I don't see any evidence of it. The Senate bill is worse than doing nothing."
You've got it, JH. No progress. No movement.
---- Dennis Kucinich communicated on 9/9/2009 and again on 9/10/2009 that there is no single-payer movement, that one is needed.
---- On 12/18/2009, just four days ago, Robert Kuttner said the same thing (on Bill Moyers Journal) by stating that there is no social movement in the United States.
There is no movement. Here are a couple examples of many: a dismal number of participants (1200) showed up in June for a national march on Washington and then much fewer (200-300) showed up for the Mad As Hell Doctors event in the fall.
Dennis Kucinich:
9/9/2009 interview (video): "gonna take a national movement that could take years to bring about"
9/10/2009 his conference call: "We need a national movement to surface. ... It may not happen overnight, but we need to organize. ... We need a national education campaign. ... Most don't know what single payer is. We need a mass movement. ... Health care should be seen not as a cost, but as a benefit. (We need to have an) educational transformation."
It looks to me like some education is in order. That would lead to having Americans know what the subject is, because they do not. There is specific evidence of that fact, which solidly backs up what Kucinich said.
Ah ... education ... that would lead to knowledgeable Americans.
Then that would lead to more participants, which would lead to people signing up to stand up for single-payer at
http://www.medicareforall.org
Then perhaps that graph at the homepage at http://www.medicareforall.org would even get to the campaign goal of a million participants. Then maybe ... just maybe ... Kucinich and Kuttner might agree with statements about there being a movement.
And then the Graphs of Progress at the Single-Payer Support monitor (both at the Medicare for All website) would start to show some progress as we shoot to over 67% support. Also see the "Status" link.
Then we'll have single-payer, Medicare for All, so fast it'll make your head spin.
Bob Haiducek, Bob the Health and Health Care Advocate
http://www.medicareforall.org
We can all do what I call "help get care".
http://www.medicareforall.org/pages/helpgetcare
TO ALL:
I should have broken up that last post into two, as the second half has the positive part of the post. Nonetheless, here is some more positive text for you.
We can and will get single-payer, Medicare for All: now, not later.
I believe that Americans will do what I call "help get care", including learning about the subject of single-payer, Medicare for All and then signing up to get it.
http://www.medicareforall.org/pages/helpgetcare
We've started. But, no, it is not yet appropriate to call it a movement, as indicated in a previous post.
We will get single-payer, Medicare for All, with carefully prepared resources that help us to tell others about single-payer and its benefits.
http://www.medicareforall.org/pages/Single-Payer_Education
We will communicate progress when there is progress. So far we've had essentially none in terms of impacting the U.S. Congress, having been under 100 U.S. Representatives and essentially flat performance for the last 3 years.
http://www.medicareforall.org/pages/Graphs_of_Progress#Reps_1
I used to think that progress is measured only at the Graphs of Progress. But that's the second part of a multiple-part set of accomplishments.
Major Steps, including the measurements:
1. The number of participants: measurement and monitoring of the Status of participation as it goes to and beyond one million.
http://www.medicareforall.org/pages/Status
---- The reaching of one million will preferably occur with at least two thousand in each of the 435 U.S. Congressional Districts.
---- If the support at the Graphs of Progress has not zoomed to above 70% in the U.S. House by the time #1 is accomplished, we will consider doing a special face-to-face delivery of the envelopes to each of the 435 offices in Washington, D.C. with as many constituents as possible for each office visit. That will be one million envelopes to be delivered. Perhaps each office building will loan us a cart to wheel the large stacks to each office. That will be a big day. Perhaps that's the day when we will officially establish the single-payer movement.
Note: progress will be reported at intermediate steps, such as the reporting that occurs at the Latest "News and Notes" on the left side of every screen. The latest news of a milestone of progress is here:
http://99oh9.blogspot.com/2009/11/1340-in-340-districts.html
2. The number of supporters: measurement and monitoring of single-payer support in the U.S. House, as it goes to and above 67%. Same for the U.S. Senate, which will certainly be aware of the flood of envelopes each month to the 435 offices.
3. The debate and signature.Congress will debate and establish good legislation (because we'll have over 70% support and preferably 80% support) and then the President will sign it.
4. The implementation. We get our national health insurance cards.
5. The result: Get more. Pay less. Cover everyone.
6. The maintenance: we'll need to have a continued effort to maintain what we achieve.
.
Bob Haiducek, Bob the Health and Health Care Advocate
I think it's time for a march on washington- I thought the tea baggers trip last year was a joke and would be viewed as such by the legislators- I was horrified and shocked how seriously they were taken- we need to do the same- you may know the "mad as hell" doctors had a similar but smaller trip and got the cold shoulder by Obama, washington and the press- how can we change this around??PNHP (17,000 strong) should be the organizing group what do you say, Margaret? I'm ready to come from California. Lynne Penek-Holden Health Care for All- California
Your question, Lynne, is a great one: "how can we change this around??" You also wrote that you were horrified and shocked how seriously the tea-baggers were taken.
My overall reply is that we would also be treated seriously if we had any kind of movement at all, as per Kucinich and Kuttner in one of my previous posts.
My next post will be "Knowledge and Numbers". That is my answer to how to change from being a bothersome pest to our society to being a viable force that is more powerful than lobbyists and definitely more powerful than tea-baggers. The strategy is called "A Million Citizens: More Powerful Than Lobbyists". However, the critical success factor is to establish "Knowledge and Numbers."
My previous comments (that starts with "JH wrote: ... ") documented that some people don't recognize that there is any evidence of a movement. That includes Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who stated publicly two days in a row in September that we need a movement ... and Robert Kuttner (last weekend's Bill Moyers Journal).
So I respectfully suggest that your reference(s)to marches and teabaggers begs the following question:
............ How do we build a movement?
Kucinich made me very angry initially when he not only stated that we need a movement, but he also said strongly that it "could take years to bring about". I was very angry, but I got over it quickly, because I know that he's wrong. We can do this very fast. 2010 is perfect timing. But, as Kucinich communicated, we must focus on education, because Americans don't yet know what the topic is. That lack of knowledge is also covered in my previous post, below.
Bob Haiducek, Bob the Health and Health Care Advocate
We can help get care ...
http://www.medicareforall.org/pages/helpgetcare