What are you prepared to do for single payer health insurance?

Senator Max Baucus and the Senate Finance Committee are feeling the pressure.

This Wednesday, Sen. Baucus will meet with a delegation of leading single payer national health plan advocates.

The delegation includes Dr. David Himmelstein, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), Dr. Marcia Angell, Senior Lecturer, Harvard Medical School and former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Oliver Fein, Associate Dean, Cornell Weill Medical School, and President of PNHP, Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association, and Geri Jenkins, president of California Nurses Association.

Unfortunately when legislators act in such an "unofficial" manner, people realize they are merely being humored and dismissed with a condescending pat on the head. This will not do. A private meeting with single payer advocates does not mean that single payer is on the table or will get a fair hearing.

We are pleased Sen. Baucus is feeling the pressure and reacting but an off-the-record meeting is not enough. We want single payer on the table and really being considered. We know that on every measure: cost, patient choice, improved health care and covering all people -- single payer wins every argument. It isn't even a close question which is why a super majority of Americans support single payer -- improved Medicare for all.

Please take action as I did and write Senator Baucus and the Senate Finance Committee today. Tell them that while we appreciate the private meeting for single payer -- that is not good enough. Single payer needs to be on the table, because with fair consideration single payer will be the health care plan adopted by the nation. Please click on this link to send a letter now. http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1312/t/9277/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27348

The multi-payer system that Senator Baucus is pushing will be a gift to the insurance industry that has so generously supported him throughout his political career. It will push, perhaps even force, people to buy insurance, it will subsidize the industry even more than it already is, it will not control costs indeed it will increase taxes to pay for insurance subsidies, and, if there is a public insurance option it will have so many strings attached that it will fail. This is not reform that provide health care to all at a price the nation can afford.

We're making progress. Please take action now to keep the pressure on.
It is time to put single payer on the table, indeed it is time to make it America's national health policy. A private meeting should spur our movement to increase the pressure senators are feeling. We want real change not symbolic meetings.

Standing on a corner with a bunch of other tired old hippies just ain’t gonna get the job done. In a city the size of Philadelphia with 4 million people only around 200 were willing to do something even that benign. This drew NO PRESS!

If 100 people had laid down on 16th Street and the other 100 on Chestnut Street, you can bet your butt we'd have gotten press. The corporate media stays away in droves from the single payer issue. If we want to accomplish anything in this country we must create a situation in the daily life of America whereby business as usual can no longer be conducted.

WHAT ARE YOU PREPARED TO DO?

WHAT IS SINGLE PAYER?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAvy9jew9dM&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eprosperityagenda%2Eus%2F&feature=player_embedded

HERE’S WHAT SOME WERE PREPARED TO DO:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKP05AyfRsI&feature=related

Please make yourself aware of the truth about single payer rather than the fear and lies spread by the insurance companies and the MSM. I used the British system and my taxes there were only slightly higer on the same salary as they are here. I also received six weeks of vacation plus holidays a year and was given "as much time off as I needed" when my father became critically ill in the US and then died. The three and a half weeks was not deducted from my vacation time nor was my salary reduced. I thought that a small amount more in taxes was sure worth excellent health care, low-priced meds, and all that family time and vacation!

Example: I pay $108 in family premiums but 7% federal GST that covers a lot of it

Its better to minimize premiums as much as possible so you can at least try and fund it with progressive taxation (not that sales tax is the proper approach)

I was very impressed with the health care in the UK. I really didn't notice the VAT as I saw prices in the UK comparable to those in the US. In other words and by example, I bought a pair of walking shoes in the UK and paid 79 pounds. The same shoes were $85 in the US. had I shopped around, I may have been able to get them cheaper but I bought the pair in the UK at the London Marathon store and the pair in the US at a similar type of store. The shoes, by the way, were from a US company. My salary in the UK was the same as in the US but in pounds. Given the conversion rate at the time between the dollar and the pound, I was paid significantly higher in the UK if the money was then converted to dollars; however, as I was living in the UK, I paid for my flat, food, etc. in pounds and the cost was very similar to the US but, as I have noted, in pounds but not dollars.

My point is that I never really thought about the VAT. If I counted the tax on my shoes in the US, it would have made the cost of the shoes about 8% higher.

I pay $6000 a year in premiums for my health insurance in the US and I have a $6000 deductible before the insurance company pays anything. If a single payer system in the US can reduce costs by 30%, then I would be ahead in premiums by $2000 per year. That would be money directly in my pocket!!!!!

Good old American Citizen. Any Government sponsored health program will be supported by taxes. To think that you can institute a national health care plan with all of the bells and whistles that are desirable without collecting taxes from someone is insane. Who gets to pay the taxes and how much will be the really serious political fight in our congress. I expect that I will be taxed to some extent to support the system. I have not problem with that.
$2000 a year may not be to bad for some folks but it exceeds the amount that I may currently in income taxes.

I was formerly an uninsured American. Well, I have limited experience here with health care because I haven't had any surgeries yet and Ive only lived here a year. I guess we have had one baby under it, 2 ER trips (for other child), and tons of clinic visits. In my anecdotal experience, Ill give it a 10 out of 10 in terms of care itself. Just last week I was in a doctor's office (walk in, no appointment) for only 10 minutes before he rushed my child to the treatment room an administered medicine. And no, I never was so much as billed for the visit. Most of my experience is in private doctor clinics, and its just amazing. I was used to waiting 2 days to 2 weeks to get in to see the doctor in the States, unless I went to emergency care or the ER. Here, its instant. In my area, there are far more clinics per capita than on the Oregon Coast (because it is not profitable there for them to do so there). Here, they all know they will get paid for serving people, period. The clinics KNOW for a fact about how much they will make per patient, per year, etc, so they know their viability and can regulate their expenses and overhead to meet it.

Single payer is just awesome. No questions. No billing. No co-pays. No hassle. No paperwork. Flat 108 a month, period, per family of any size (less for single/couples). It pays set fees for services, without denying claims, so it really helps facilities (public/private) administrate themselves.

it is paid for by the taxes levied against the citizens of the country. Nothing wrong with this as far as I can see. You pay taxes to the NHS and you get Health care as a result. Am I wrong. If British citizens do not pay taxes to support the NHS, who does? PS. pay a premium, pay a tax, what is the difference. It is still some of my money being turned over to the Government.

I pay $6000 a year in premiums for my health insurance in the US and I have a $6000 deductible before the insurance company pays anything. If a single payer system in the US can reduce costs by 30%, then I would be ahead in premiums by $2000 per year. That would be money directly in my pocket!!!!! In addition, my doctor would be the one making the decision about my health care and not some Indian in Mumbai working for some US insurance company.

The insurance companies do not like it, but the people do, sans Stevie Harper.

to the bloated military budget for single payer healthcare!

:toast:

Could I do it? We're deeply in debt, so a trip to D.C. is not exactly an option. But I'll march in San Francisco.

I'd also hand over all the premiums we pay in health insurance for single payer.

could get at least half that number for a march on DC.

I want everyone to have what I have and even better, because it can be done. Telling everyone that since I got Medicare I am no longer afraid of my insurance company is what I can contribute.