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The Single Payer Vote Today; From Congressmen Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers
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For OpEdNews: Press Release - Writer From Congressmen Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers
We thank you for your continued devotion to the cause of health care
for All Americans. We have worked together for many years to write,
promote and campaign for HR676, a single payer, not for profit health
care system. Your work, in communities across America, has been
instrumental in helping at least ten states create single payer
movements, with many more states to come.
Tomorrow, the House of Representatives is scheduled
to consider a single payer bill. As the two principal co-authors of the
Conyers single payer bill, we want to offer a strong note of caution
about tomorrow's vote.
The bill presented tomorrow will not be HR676. While
we are happy to relinquish authorship of a single payer bill to any
member who can do better, we do not want a weak bill brought forward in
a hostile climate to unwittingly accomplish what would be interpreted
as a defeat for single payer.
Here are the facts: There has been no debate in
Congress over HR676. There has not been a single mark-up of the bill.
Single payer was "taken off the table" for the entire year by the White
House and by congressional leaders. There has been no reasonable period
of time to gather support in the Congress for single payer. Many
members accepted a "robust public option" as the alternative to single
payer and now that has disappeared. The Congressional Budget Office
(CBO) has scored the bill scheduled for a vote tomorrow in a manner
which is at odds with many credible assumptions, meaning that it will
appear to cost way too much even though we know that true single payer
saves money since one of every three dollars in the health care system
goes to administrative costs caused by the insurance companies. Is this
really the climate in which we want a test vote?
While state single payer movements are already
strong, the national single payer movement is still growing. Many
progressives in Congress, ourselves included, feel that calling for a
vote tomorrow for single payer would be tantamount to driving the
movement over a cliff. The thrill of the vote would disappear quickly
when the result would be characterized not as a new beginning for
single payer but as an end. Such a result would be seen as proof that
Congress need not pay attention to efforts to restore in Conference
Committee the right of states to pursue single payer without fear of
legal attacks by insurance companies.
We are always grateful for your support. We are now
asking you to join us in suggesting to congressional leaders that this
is not the right time to call the roll on a stand-alone single payer
bill. That time will come. And when it does there will not be any doubt
of the outcome. This system of health care injustice will not be able
to endure forever. We are pledged to make sure of that.
Sincerely,
Congressmen John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich
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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