Please forward widely ….

Health Care Reform: No bill is better than a bad bill

… and HR 3962 is plenty bad enough that Olympia Single Payer Action (OSPA) is calling on the citizens of this community to contact their Congress members and urge them to vote NO on this bill or any bill which does not contain the Kucinich amendment, which would allow states to adopt their own single-payer system if they chose to do so. (See Congressional contact info below.)

We appreciate the hard work of local Progressive Democrats, in particular, Linda Sternhill Davis, in their efforts on behalf of health care reform. Unfortunately, we believe that in the long run the bill they have endorsed will do far more harm to that cause than good.

HR 3962 falls far short of the Democratic Party’s stated goal of significantly reducing costs while providing affordable access to quality health care for all Americans. The Kucinich amendment is an essential remedy to the bill’s shortcomings and, as stated in a recent letter from House progressives, it is a compromise which “allows the country to move incrementally in the direction that is needed.”

In a letter dated Nov 4, Rep. Kucinich stated:

“The Kucinich amendment represents the most powerful challenge to the insurance companies’ control of our health care system. Even the possibility of a state single payer system will make the insurance companies think twice before they raise premiums. The higher the insurance premiums, the more vulnerable companies are to citizens’ efforts to create alternatives such as a single payer system. We should never be locked into higher and higher premiums!”

The Kucinich amendment should not be confused with the Weiner amendment, which essentially called for the text of the current bill to be replaced with HR 676, establishing a national single-payer program, Medicare for All. Speaker Pelosi had promised a vote on the House floor, but today Rep. Weiner withdrew the amendment.

While Rep. Weiner cited the need to pass the House bill as his reason for withdrawing his amendment, a more compelling rationale was offered today by David Swanson  who said that “the single-payer vote was going to be used as cover for voting for a bad bill.” Unfortunately, that now appears to have been the case.

Again, OSPA is calling on the citizens of this community to call their Congress members and urge them to vote NO on this bill or any bill which does not contain the Kucinich amendment.

It is important to contact Senators Cantwell and Murray as well. As Rep. Kucinich points out:

“Once the health care bill passes the House, and the Senate passes its version, the two bills will go to a Conference Committee. It is at this point that we will have one more chance. We need to insist that the Kucinich Amendment be included in the Conference Committee report, since that is what will ultimately become law.”

Last week, OSPA delivered 90 hand-written notes to Rep. Baird’s office asking him to support the single payer amendments, along with a letter asking him to vote NO on any bill that does not include the Kucinich amendment. We collected these cards in just two afternoons at the Olympia Farmer’s Market. We'll be collecting more cards and paying more visits to Rep. Baird's office – and hopefully, Rep. Smith's too. But we need more people.

Please consider joining this effort.

Next Olympia Single Payer Action (OSPA) meeting:
THIS Sunday, Nov 8, at 11:00 AM
Mixx 96 Meeting room at 119 Washington Street NE
(SW corner of State and Washington St, to the right of the old Otto's)

Contact us at olysinglepayer@gmail.com .

And finally, there is a good article posted today at CommonDreams by Tom Gallagher which takes a position virtually identical to the one OSPA has articulated here.

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Congressional contacts:

Brian Baird – Phone: (202) 225-3536 • Fax: (202) 225-3478
https://forms.house.gov/baird/webforms/issue_subscribe.htm

Adam Smith – Phone: (202) 225-8901 • Fax: (202) 225-5893
http://adamsmith.house.gov/Contact/

Patty Murray – Phone: (202) 224-2621 or Toll Free: (866) 481-9186 • Fax: (202) 224-0238 http://murray.senate.gov/email/index.cfm

Maria Cantwell – Phone: (202) 224-3441 • Fax: (202) 228-0514
http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/