Article: Single-Payer Healthcare Advocates Protesting Exclusion from Congressional Debate Arrested

BETWEEN THE LINES: What's going on in the House? You've mentioned that there's been more success in getting the option of single-payer raised in the House of Representatives than in the U.S. Senate. John Conyers has a "Medicare for All" bill, I think is the nickname of it.

DR. MARGARET FLOWERS: Right.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Maybe you could explain a little bit about that bill and where it's headed right now, and the role of the public in trying to get a fair hearing for that legislation.

DR. MARGARET FLOWERS: The bill is HR 676, expanded and improved Medicare for All, and Congressman Conyers and Congressman Dennis Kucinich are the lead sponsors for that. But we have 75 cosponsors for that right now. And what it would do is it would create a national health systempreventative care and mental health, dental, vision, prescription drugs, long-term. And you would be given a card and you have complete choice of where you want to go, which doctor, which hospital, you're traveling in another state and you need to see a doctor, you use your card and you can be seen there, there's no concern about being in or out of network.

I just wanted to mention, because people always say, well, how can we afford to do that? Multiple studies have shown that if we enact this type of a system, it actually saves money for the country while providing health care to everybody. But what we're trying to do in the House is we really need to get another 95 cosponsors. If we can get about 170 cosponsors, then we can start moving that bill through the process. So we're asking people to find out if their Congress member has cosponsored HR 676, and if they haven't, then to meet with them and ask them to cosponsor or develop letter writing campaigns or call-in campaigns or petitions or anything that you can do to convince your Congress member to support this bill.

Contact Physicians for a National Health Program by calling (312) 782-6006 debate. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with one of those arrested on May 5, Dr. Margaret Flowers, co-chair of the Maryland chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program, a national organization with 16,000 physician members. She explains why single-payer activists find it necessary to resort to direct action in order to draw attention to the single-payer healthcare model, used by the majority of around the world. or visit their website at that every single person living in the United States would receive a health card, and that would cover all medically necessary care, including www.pnhp.org

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Scott Harris is the executive producer of Between The Lines, which can be heard on more than 45 radio stations and in RealAudio and MP3 on our website at http://www.btlonline.org. This interview excerpt was featured on the award-winning, syndicated weekly radio newsmagazine, Between The Lines for the week ending May 22, 2009. This Between The Lines Q&A was compiled by Anna Manzo and Scott Harris.

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