Single-Payers Crashing the Gates

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By Marcy Winograd (about the author) Page 2 of 2 page(s)

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Last time I checked we had publicly funded the fire department, police
department, national parks, libraries, universities and the highways of
America. Though the government pays the bills for these services, fire
departments are still free to purchase equipment made by private
vendors; libraries purchase books from for-profit publishing houses.
The same would be true under a single-payer system, which though funded
by taxpayers would allow for individual choice: choose any doctor,
hospital, lab, or clinic you wish. Ironically, a free market approach
in the delivery of health care.

So, let us not adopt the Republican Party's talking points to
marginalize the oracles; instead, we must marginalize those who make a
killing off of health care.

If politicians in Washington pass a bill that precludes single-payer on
the federal level, so be it. If those same lawmakers, however, pass a
bill that pre-empts the states from forming their own s
ingle payer systems or multi-state single-payer consortiums, then we're in real trouble.

But we are not defeated. Losing patience with the congressional
run-around, single-payer advocates are not just getting arrested in
Washington, but also planning in-your-face actions in their districts.
"Wear your hospital gown and bring your gurney" protests in front of
the Los Angeles office of Congressman Henry Waxman are planned for July
11th. Waxman, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, was a
previous co-sponsor of HR 676, Conyers' bill for single-payer, but has
since reneged. A few weeks ago Waxman steadfastly refused to hold
hearings on single-payer, but that changed when Conyers called out
Waxman publicly and single-payer activists crashed Waxman's Health Care
for America Now (HCAN) forum at UCLA on the public option. Since then, Waxman's Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Health held hearings (www.energycommerce.house.gov -click on "Hearings" tab, Day II, Part II), with single-payer advocates, such as Congressman Conyers and
representatives from Harvard Medical School and the Physicians for a
National Health Program, testifying for a more comprehensive overhaul.

Politics, of course, is the art of compromise. So I call on Congressman
Waxman--my former representative, Congresswoman Harman--my current
representative and the one I am challenging in 2010, and Congressman
Conyers--the sponsor of HR676, to join forces to introduce a new health
care bill that immediately enrolls every American in Medicare while
allowing for those who prefer private insurance to opt out, pay their
taxes, and cough up the added cost of boutique health care if they so
choose.

One of the main reasons I am running for Congress is to get single
payer health care for all Americans. To push for it, I am running
prime-time cable ads round-the-clock on CNN and MSNBC, including spots
on Olbermann's Countdown and the Rachel Maddow show, challenging my
opponent, long-time incumbent Jane Harman (D-CA), to sign on to
Congressman John Conyers' bill, HR 676, for single-payer.

Perhaps someone else, another primary candidate, will issue the same
challenge in a different race, so that together, through
district-targeted cable ads, we can amplify the message to not only put
single-payer on the table, but to make it the main course.

Marcy Winograd is a 2010 congressional candidate running to unseat
Jane Harman in southern California's 36th district, a 30-mile stretch
that spans West Los Angeles to the harbor. Winograd is currently
airing commercials on CNN and MSNBC that challenge Harman to sign on to Congressman Conyers' bill for single-payer health care. For more on
the campaign, visit www.winograd4congress.com or Marcy Winograd for
Congress on Facebook.

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Marcy Winograd is founder of Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles. She's a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District and the 2010 candidate for the United States Congress in California's 36th Congressional District

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.

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