Democrats and progressives need to understand this is a transfer of wealth from working class Americans to an insurance industry that has abused working class Americans decades. They need to recognize that this is really, as Zeese points out, a "health insurance enrichment bill" that builds on the faults of the current system and forces consumers to subsidize a system that has exploited them time and time again.
While one may say things do not look good for single-payer right now, the movement has had a good run and it is not calling it quits anytime soon.
"We've come from being completely blocked out of the conversation in many ways to leveraging our way in to having congressional hearings and having single-payer advocates testify in Congress," said Robbins. "I don't think Democratic leadership expected single-payer legislation to be alive at this point."
Single-payer advocates now turn their attention to the Senate. They are looking for support from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and hope he will require a state-based single-payer amendment be added to health care legislation when it comes up for a vote.
Return to OpEdNews for Part 2 as the movement keeping real healthcare reform is further covered and explored.
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