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Locals launch single-payer healthcare effort

The local group’s most visible event was a Sept. 24 public meeting held in the State College Borough Council Chambers that drew more than 100 people and is being rebroadcast on C-NET this month. The moderator of the event was Chris Calkins, director of Outreach Health Initiatives at Penn State and the panel included Ron Fisher, a practicing psychiatrist from Huntingdon, Chuck Pennacchio, the leader of the statewide Healthcare for All Pa., Sajay Samuel, a Penn State economist and Jon Eich chair of the Centre County Board of Commissioners who all took questions from the audience, which appeared overwhelmingly lopsided in support of reform.

Even -- "even," haw -- WaPo has become infected with the noxious meme that the "public option" and Medicare are the same*:

Reid has compared himself to the late Mike Mansfield (Mont.), who succeeded Johnson and served as Democratic leader for 16 years, the longest tenure ever for a Senate party leader. Mansfield's soft cajoling helped lead to the 1965 passage of Medicare and Medicaid, the largest "public options" ever created in the health-care system.

Medicare is not a "public option." Medicare is single payer for over-65s, which can be supplemented with private insurance. Why is conflating Medicare with public option bad, other than being, well, a lie?

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I have in front of me a book about dogs that I want to share a few words from--share them with whoever you are: the book is titled LEADER OF THE PACK (published by Quill, A Harper Resource Book) and it was written by Nancy Baer and Steve Duno. My wife rescues dogs and was told about this book: she read it, loved it, made me read it and then bought a bunch of copies to give to people with whom we place dogs, or just people with dogs independent of us who, to my wife's eye, look like they could use some guidance. If dogs could read she would give copies to dogs, but let's not go there.