Amy Goodman and Dr. Flowers discuss health reform

AMY GOODMAN: ...Single payer was not a part of yesterday’s discussion. No advocate was there—Dennis Kucinich, not Physicians for a National Health Program. Your group asked to be represented, Dr. Flowers?

DR. MARGARET FLOWERS: We did, because the President had stated that health experts should be involved in this process. And so, we wanted to offer our services as people that do research in this area. And indeed, they quoted several of our studies during the summit.

AMY GOODMAN: What happened? Why wasn’t anyone represented?

DR. MARGARET FLOWERS: Well, you know, this has been a series of—throughout the entire health process, that we’ve been excluded from this discussion. I think it’s pretty basic. It hearkens back to the special interests that have been involved in this process, you know, and we—it’s really interesting to watch this debate, because so many of the areas that the President and Congress are talking about—cost controls, increasing coverage, excluding pre-existing conditions—all of these would be met through a national Medicare-for-All system. But—so we win, you know, on the policy. But there is such a heavy influence from the insurance and pharmaceutical companies that they, I guess, felt threatened by the presence of the single-payer advocates....

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