Now I know Governor Schweitzer is the Governor of a very liberal state, Montanans are practically the French, no? And, yet, he manages to very effectively dispel myths of "socialized" medicine, and argues for single payer, in a way that may even appeal to those Hyde Park Blue Dogs.

BELGRADE - As Gov.

July 30 Great Falls Tribune

HELENA — Donors planning to attend Sen. Max Baucus' "Camp Baucus" fundraiser at the posh Big Sky Resort south of Bozeman this weekend will be met by an unfriendly welcoming committee.
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On Friday, Baucus kicks off the first of the annual three-day fundraising event, and health care reform activists will be there to greet Baucus' donors as they drive the narrow and windy road to the event.

Singlepayer advocates protest Baucus

HELENA, Mont. (AP) Advocates for a government run health care system marched in the streets in several Montana cities Friday to protest U.S. Sen. Max Baucus' leading overhaul plan.

Single Payer Health Care Rally Boise Idaho

Rochester Now

Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., is putting on a health summit in Bozeman Aug. 9 and 10, his office announced Monday.

The summit will be free and will feature world-class experts and top foundation and business leaders discussing ways to improve health and promote wellness in small communities across the state.

Speakers include Sally Jewell, president and CEO of REI; Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; and Neil Nicoll, president and CEO of YMCA.

Health care TV ads, rallies target Baucus in home state

Disability rights coalition protests at Baucus' Missoula office

On Tuesday, members of the Missoula Coalition for Disability Rights took its fight back to Senator Max Baucus' Missoula office for a sit-in.

Baucus ‘spinning’ health care

As a former lifelong Republican I voted for Obama because he promised to take power from lobbyists and restore it to the American public, especially in areas of health care, energy and education reform. These areas need drastic changes, and thus far his personal efforts to promote such change has been pathetic. ...

Democratic chairman backs single-payer health care

HELENA — The head of the Montana Democratic Party, also a candidate for Congress, is coming out in favor of universal health coverage at a time when the issue is becoming increasingly difficult for senior Montana U.S. Sen. Max Baucus.

Dennis McDonald, who hopes to topple U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg in 2010, said the current proposals in Washington, D.C., are far too complicated.

Private insurance companies push for 'individual mandate'

Protesters want Baucus to consider single-payer system: Video

Billings Gazette

On Friday, Paris was in Montana, doing what got her arrested: urging Baucus, Congress and the president to consider a single-payer system of national health insurance that covers all citizens equally.

"The next 60 days are critical," she told a rally of 150 single-payer supporters in Helena. "We need to keep the heat on Sen. Baucus (and Congress and the president)."

Marcia Angell : There would be no need for an individual mandate in a single-payer system

Single-payer health care: Baucus keeps getting an earful

“I can find nothing in his white paper,” said Howlett, director of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes' Health and Human Services Department, “that provides for Native American health care on a par with the rest of the country.”

Howlett, who served on an advisory committee that offered input from Montanans to Baucus on the subject, said he ended up feeling his presence there was “symbolic more than substantive.”

“We're only given

Single-payer advocates not giving up the fight

John Selib, Baucus' chief of staff, said his boss' goal of making sure everyone has health care coverage could be undermined by opening a potentially divisive debate on single-payer.

Selib said it's been 16 years since Congress' last attempt at health care reform, and insurance companies continue to discriminate against patients and raise premiums.

Hear that peasants? Be grateful for any crumbs we choose to toss you or you might not get anything.

Single-payer mentions draw cheers at Baucus-sponsored health care talk

When the time came for questions, McArthur stood up and asked a simple question. Looking across a standing-room-only crowd of about 275, he asked how many were happy with their employer-based health insurance.

Less than 10 people raised their hands.

“The number is bogus,” McArthur said. “It's not working for 95 percent of us.”

McArthur drew resounding applause.

Baucus to sponsor town halls on health

Baucus himself won't be attending the meetings held mostly in smaller communities across the state. But his top staffers will be there

I trust our brothers and sisters in Montana Single Payer will be in attendance.

Baucus closes door on single-payer in national health care debate

ZOMG the phrase "single payer" was spoken on Fox News!

DeLauro, Dodd get earful from public on health care

Letter to the Rutland Herald: Why we need single-payer

Letter to the Las Vegas Sun: Single-payer system is most trustworthy

Gene Fenderson's guest opinion in the Billings Gazette

So the old scare tactics on health care reform are still around. But think about it. If Congress won't even consider a single-payer health care system, what kind of a "system" will our nation and we, as individuals, end up with? I am convinced the outcome will be even more complicated and detrimental than what we have now, a hodgepodge on top of an existing hodge-podge of insurance plans. In other words, no plan and certainly no "system."

Blogger: Health care reform coalition faces tough battle

Q: Baucus has said a government single-payer or Medicare-for-all system of universal coverage is not an option for reform. Shouldn't a single-payer system be considered?

National Health Care Act worthy of public support

Sick of health insurance costs? Then pay attention. Some in Congress want to perpetuate the power of insurance corporations over our health care and what we pay to get it. There is an alternative. The U.S. National Health Care Act: Expanded and Improved Medicare for All, HR 676 could be implemented within 13 months (like Medicare was) and unlike the Wall Street bailout, would be funded by eliminating waste while providing a real hand up for every American family and business — except the insurance industry.

Letter to Great Falls Tribune

We should ask Max why he refuses to give single-payer health care a fair hearing. Perhaps because he knows that a well-designed Medicare-for-all plan will "pencil out" far better and be more user friendly and less complex than his plan.

Mike Dennison: How did reform happen elsewhere?

And finally, in Canada, its system of government health insurance for all started in one corner of one province — Saskatchewan — in the mid-1940s and slowly spread across that province and then the country as citizens saw how it worked. It didn't become fully established everywhere until the mid-1960s.

Which brings us back to America, 2009, and our own health-care path. ...

...Why would we keep health insurance tied to employment? Almost nobody likes it.

Read the whole thing. Post it on your blog and any community blog you frequent. Blogwhore in the comments. Send it to your friends.

Missoulian Online

Which brings us back to Sen. Baucus, who told us last week that health care reform in America will include “both public and private coverage,” and that he'll be carrying legislation that will have “a very strong incentive for private (insurance) coverage.”

Montana: Letter to the HelenaIR.com

In presenting his national health care plan, “A Call to Action — Health Reform 2009,” Sen. Max Baucus said, “My door is open and I seek partners with ‘can-do’ spirits and open minds.” Earlier though, in the health care forums he held around Montana, Baucus stated very strongly that a single-payer health care plan “is off the table.”

Believing that the Senator’s “door is open,” I maintain that a single-payer system must be on the table because it can help save our present and future economic well being as a state and nation. ...

Senator calling on health industry to address high costs

In the face of rising health-care costs and national momentum for health care reforms, state Sen. Roy Brown, R-Billings, is holding two special hearings next week where he’ll ask health-industry people what they’re doing to solve the problem....

... Brown said he also hopes that consumer representatives and others will testify at the hearings, which begin at 3 p.m. each day in Room 317 at the state Capitol. ...

Report: Montanans like 'Medicare for all'

As part of a grassroots effort to reform health care, Montanans are sending ideas to President-elect Barack Obama - and, so far, many are saying that a national, ``Medicare for all'' system is the way to go.

``The consensus of (our group) was that we did not see a lot of change coming unless we went to a single-payer, universal health system,'' said Deborah Hanson of Miles City, who organized a meeting of local citizens at the behest of Obama's transition team. ``That was sort of a general consensus - knowing, of course, that may not happen.''

These house parties do not seem to have worked out quite the way Daschle intended.

Gene Fenderson writes for the Great Falls Tribune

We don't really have a "system." What we have is a confused maze of coverage types and providers — Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, SCHIP, military, veterans administration, Indian Health Service, federal employee coverage, health savings accounts, community health centers, private insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, medical coverage in auto insurance and more.

Le Pistoir

Basically, there is a proven model for reducing health care costs that we could use "off-the-shelf" to fix the broken American health-care financing system.
NPR has taken a look at polling (which supports NHI over the status quo by 2:1) and concluded that it is impossible. Even with vast public support, a Democrat president and Congress, and proven results in other countries, NPR says the new President Obama will not be able to make NHI happen.