HR 676

If I were in charge of strategy for the Medicare for All movement (never say the scary word single payer, say Medicare for All) I would chose this moment for an email blast asking people to write a letter to the editor in support of HR 676 (which now has 41 co-sponsors)

Want a Democratic response to Ryan? How about Medicare for All baby? Read below the fold...

Healthcare-NOW!: Conyers Reintroduces “Expanded & Improved Medicare For All” Bill (HR 676):

Washington DC- Representative John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), a long-time national leader for non-profit publicly-financed universal health care, today introduced H.R. 676, “The Expanded & Improved Medicare For All Act.” The single-payer universal health care bill, which has been introduced since 2003, has 25 original cosponsors, and has sparked a growing national movement in support of the bill.

Read below the fold...

Health Care Reform Reminder: Dems Could Still Pass Public Option Through Reconciliation

There is no public option.
There never was a public option.
The public option is an advertising slogan devised by Celinda Lake to divert progressive energy from the single payer movement. Kipp Sullivan documented this in a 5 part series.

You cannot pass legislation that has not been proposed. Read below the fold...

In a reply to my post on a progressive deficit reduction plan, a commenter suggested that holding Federal interest costs at the rate of .0226 in the coming years would “crush” retirees and savers, and throw them under the bus. Presumably, the commenter feels the same about the possibility I brought up of eliminating interest costs entirely by ceasing to issue debt instruments. Read below the fold...

This is a reply I wrote to Bryce Covert, MJ, and Richard Kirsch, formerly of HCAN, at the New Deal 2.0 (ND20) site. Read below the fold...

Dean Baker had an interesting post in HuffPo on August 2nd on the Alan Blinder/Mark Zandi study. It's the best take on it I've seen thus far. He says: Read below the fold...

Earlier today, I wrote about “sidecar reconciliation” and the difficulty of passing it, and concluded, in light of Lawrence O'Donnell's remarks on MSNBC about parliamentary maneuvers, encountered a number of times each day, still needing 60 votes to overcome them, that Republicans can block HCR through reconciliation if they want to. Read below the fold...

Haw. Good one, NTodd. What you said:

I will not celebrate the Senate vote taken in the the wee hours this morning.  At this point so many people are desperate to declare a win that they will accept anything so long as they can label it HCR.  You can list a lot of nice reasons to support this bill, from the children's pre-existing conditions provision to the resolution that puppies are cute and precious and ought not be boiled for dinner, but that's not HCR.

Call it Insurance Industry Regulatory Reform.  Call it the Protecting Kids and Middle-aged Americans Act.  Don't call it reform.

Read below the fold...

Avedon Carol:

Of course, the real mistake the Clintons - and many proponents of health care reform - made was to make single-payer unmentionable, to ignore or suppress calls for single-payer, to make sure the term never made it to page or screen. No one of any note was allowed to utter the words; it was The Great Unspoken.

How many times do you need to be told that you can not get what you will not ask for?

Read below the fold...

According to a post on Pennsylvania blog, House speaker Nancy Pelosi will allow a mere twenty minutes of debate on single-payer, albeit indirectly. Read below the fold...

Check out this thread at the AFL CIO blog. Trumka is getting some serious push back. Read below the fold...

Wednesday, Oct 15, is Lobby Your Representative Day

If you are in Washington DC and can join Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care in their lobbying efforts in support of Weiner's substitute single payer amendment and Kucinich's state single payer amendment, do so.

House lobby day – Wednesday, October 14th

* Lobby for Weiner HR676 substitute single-payer amendment votes
* Lobby for protection of Kucinich state single-payer option amendment

Read below the fold...

I was late to the rally, I came in while the Raging Grannies were singing. Given that it had been raining, there was a decent crowd, I would guess 100 people. The Progressive Democrats of America were there wearing hospital gowns over their clothes with signs in the front that said "health insurance is like a hospital gown" with a sign in back that said "You are not really covered." They were wearing false fannies for full effect. It was pretty funny. Then the doctor's spoke. Read below the fold...

Time to go to Jail; Civil Disobedience Campaign "Patients NOT Profits: Healthcare for All"

On September 29th in New York City, the Mobilization for Health Care for All is launching a campaign of "Patients Not Profit" sit-ins at insurance company offices to demand an end to a system that profits by denying people care and puts insurance company bureaucrats between doctors and patients. We want the real "public option": improved Medicare for All, a national single payer plan that cuts out the profit and puts patients first.
Private insurance death panels are killing people every day and blocking real health care reform.

It's time for nonviolent civil disobedience to turn the tide.

Read below the fold...

Dr. Flowers to Dems: Vote Against Obamacare

Dr. Margaret Flowers wants the 86 co-sponsors of the House single payer bill (HR 676) to vote against Obamacare.

Dr. Flowers is a leader of the group Physicians for a National Health Program, whose 17,000 member doctors support a single payer, Medicare for All system for the United States.

Read below the fold...