Single-Payer Universal Healthcare
President
Obama – Below is a copy of the email I sent today to the Blue Dog
Coalition. I sincerely hope you will take the time to also review
this material.
7/22/09
- Members of the Blue Dog Coalition – I urge you to take another
look at your apparent stand against single-payer universal health
care. America does not need Health Insurance, it needs Health Care
Billions
are wasted every year maintaining the “historical tradition” of
Health Insurance.
America
already has a Health Care system that works. It's called Medicare and
this system should be extended to cover all Americans. Poll after
poll shows that citizens with Medicare are genuinely happy with the
Health Care benefits they receive. Medicare works! HMO's don't! It's
high time that Congress acts to finally take profit out of Health
Care.
Thomas
R. Daly
Retired
California Newspaper Publisher
I urge
you to look at (or read the transcripts) from today's Democracy Now
program. The program features:
Dr. David Scheiner was President Obama’s doctor from 1987 until he entered the White House. Today Dr. Scheiner is publicly opposing Obama’s health plan and is calling for a single-payer system. [includes rush transcript]
As debate continues in Washington over healthcare reform, thousands of Americans in neighboring Virginia are preparing to line up this weekend to receive free healthcare provided by a relief organization called Remote Area Medical. We speak to the group’s founder, Stan Brock.
Additionally, I hope you will also take the time to view or read from the following:
7/16/09 - As the debate over healthcare reform intensifies on Capitol Hill, we spend the hour with a former top insurance executive who’s now exposing the industry’s dirty secrets. Wendell Potter once served as the head of corporate communications at CIGNA, one of the nation’s largest health insurance companies. We speak to Potter about his own transformation from industry mouthpiece to whistleblower, the healthcare industry’s extensive PR and lobbying machine, the campaign to discredit Michael Moore’s film Sicko, and the insurance industry’s most pressing task: the fight against a public option, let alone a single-payer system. [includes rush transcript
Howard Dean on His Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform
7/17/09 - “I don’t give a damn about the health insurance people being in business or out of business. I want a system that works,” said Dean, physician, six-term Vermont governor, Democratic presidential candidate in 2004, and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee. We speak to Dean hours after the House Ways and Means Committee approved legislation to overhaul the nation’s healthcare system and expand insurance coverage. By a 23-to-18 vote, the committee backed key elements of President Obama’s blueprint for healthcare, including the creation of a new government health plan and requirements for employers to offer health insurance to workers or contribute to its cost. To help fund the changes to the healthcare system, the House committee also agreed to impose a surtax on families with incomes of more than $350,000 a year. Meanwhile, the conservative American Medical Association has just come out in support of the House bill, saying “the status quo is unacceptable.” Howard Dean’s solution embraces President Obama’s healthcare plan but argues that the reform bill is “not worth passing unless the American people have the choice of signing up for a public option—a real public option.” [includes rush transcript]