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by Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Washington, Feb 8, 2010
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today sent a letter to President Obama commending him for calling for new ideas and a renewed discussion about health care reform. Kucinich requested that supporters of Medicare for All be represented at the upcoming February 25 health care summit.
“I hope you will invite a representative of the community that is advocating for the only health care that has consistently proven to address each of the criteria you have outlined for a satisfactory health care plan: Medicare for All,” wrote Kucinich.
Kucinich, who co-authored HR 676, Medicare for All, with Representative John Conyers (D-MI), further pointed out that many states have embraced a single-payer system of health care. Most recently, the California State Senate passed a single-payer health care bill on January 27, 2010.
Read the full letter here.
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Update
Take Action!
From the Dr. Margaret Flowers v. President Obama : DEBATE THE MERITS OF SINGLE PAYER Facebook group:
Margaret Flowers asks that you email the White House (comment line is closed) through the whitehouse.gov website and ask them to invite Congressman Kucinich to the Health Summit on Feb. 25th to be a representative of Medicare for All. Pls repost!
see
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Single-Payer-Healthcare-Go-by-Jerry-Policoff-100209-270.html h/t: Dr. Connie
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The reason we don’t go to Medicare for all is because so many members of our government, from Obama on down, get huge donations from insurance companies and Wall Street. To get around today’s restrictions, that money is “bundled”, but the Supreme Court just made that subterfuge unnecessary. Many members of Congress and the White House staff have spouses who pull down great stipends and salaries from insurance companies and Wall Street. Many members of Congress and the White House staff either came from corporate insurance backgrounds, or are planning on going there after they are out of office – or both.
A former Well-Point VP wrote that bill. It is nothing more than a transfer of citizens money, forcibly, to for-profit insurance. The premiums will be so high, and deductibles and co-pays so onerous, that many people still will not be able to afford a doctor.
Insurance company stocks would deflate tremendously, if we went to single-payer, and as far as I can tell, people who own that kind of stock are quite all right with other people being gouged and/or denied care, so long as their investment keeps growing.
The political and moral will it would take for Obama to insist on the very same health care platform he ran on does not exist. Ironically, insisting on single payer, instead of freezing single payer out before he and Rahm started secret negotiations with insurance and drug companies last spring, is likely the only way in which Obama could get re-elected.
Astonishing how “hope and change” has morphed seamlessly into “Well, we are not as awful as those other guys. Really. Trust us.”
And Obama’s idea of regulation seems to be giving out frowny-face stickers, and Congress laughs at the very idea of regulation.
I do not think for a moment that “Obama’s hands are tied”, he has just positioned himself to blame Congress if nothing passes, and to take credit if something, ANYTHING, passes. If nothing else, he should get his speechwriters to stop saying “historic opportunity”, because he is making it blatantly clear that this is all he wants, a very costly acrylic jewel, in his crown.
For the life of me I don’t understand why they don’t just simplify this whole debate to just that. Open medicare to all. If you like and can afford your current medical insurance, you keep it, if not you buy medicare. We as Americans already spend 2X per/capita than all other industrialized nations and are ranked 37th in care. SO THE MONEY IS ALREADY BEING SPENT. I see it as just spending it more wisely by taking out the for profit side of it. That’s 30% right off the top! What do we spend apprx. 2 TRILLION a year already in private healthcare? 30% of that is 600 BILLION!! THAT IS ALLOT OF COVERAGE……..NO?
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Rock on, Dennis!!