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Amazing progress has been made toward building the movement for a national single payer healthcare system in the past three years. But now we must move to a new level of organizing. We need everybody to think about how they can help.

Millions of people now understand the phrase “single payer.” Millions more are beginning to recognize the crux of the matter – the fact that the big profiteers, the insurance companies, HMO’s (the multiple payers) and pharmaceuticals (the real drug pushers) are standing in the way of a guaranteed quality healthcare system for all.

As long as we allow those profiteers to stay in control, we will never have healthcare for all.

H.R. 676, supported by Congressman John Conyers, Congressman Dennis Kucinich and 67 other Members of Congress, is the only plan that will work. Why? This is the only plan that will belong to us, the people of the United States – not the profit-making corporations. It will be administered by Medicare at a cost of about 3%, rather than the 31% administration and extra costs, of for-profit insurance companies administering our healthcare system, with no control over quality or costs.

How is that possible? How can everybody in this country – EVERYBODY- have a “healthcare home?” How is it possible that all of us would have a doctor and health facilities of our choice? Everybody with the prescription drugs, mental, dental, optical, hearing care, doctors, nurses, hospitals we need. All medically necessary care covered. That is the promise of H.R. 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act. Everybody in; nobody out. The Nation’s Healthcare System!

Who could be opposed to that? Only a few people actually. The CEO’s of big insurance companies like the CEO of United Health, whose 2005 pay was $122.7 million (the 3rd highest paid CEO in the country). He doesn’t like this idea. The number of people who would have been covered using just his salary alone - 34,000 people!

These CEO’s oppose a national single payer healthcare system. The drug companies oppose it too because we would be buying drugs in bulk for 300 million people – all of us! Under H.R. 676, Medicare would negotiate the prices – and we would continue, as a nation, to do research and invention of new drugs, as we have been, with most of that cost covered by the tax-payers. The emphasis, of course, would turn to the research we really need – not the big-profit drugs for restless legs or toe fungus or hair enhancement or erectile dysfunction – but for the life-saving drugs we really need as a people. And we would no longer be paying for the television ads designed to get us to convince our doctors to prescribe their highest priced medications.

The New Plans Would Force You to Purchase For-Profit Insurance:

There are also a number of politicians who are putting forward all kinds of hybrid plans – almost all of them mandating that everybody must “purchase” insurance from the insurance companies – these parasites just take our money and provide no healthcare.

Watch out for these plans coming from virtually all of the presidential candidates. They gloss over the fact that they would be requiring everybody to purchase high-priced insurance policies from these profiteers, these wasteful companies that stand in the way of our having a national healthcare system. In fact they have the audacity to suggest that they would require "no new taxes!”

Excuse me! If it is not a tax, then what is it when every single person in the United States is required to purchase insurance from a government-mandated corporation, a profit-making entity? So watch for that language “mandated insurance, employee mandates, individual mandates, employer mandates, etc.” They are all intended to force people to continue financing the control of the insurance companies over our healthcare – and their tremendous unnecessary profits.

The Alternative – Single Payer (H.R. 676) Medicare for All

Our bill, H.R. 676, has a sliding scale mechanism so that all of us will pay into Medicare as we do now. But those payments will be based on our income. If we make a lot of money, over $200,000, we will be required to pay a larger percentage. But if we are unemployed or disabled, or elderly or dependent, we will pay nothing – If we are making less than $200,000 per year, we will be paying less than we are now in co-pays, deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses. The best thing is that quality care for all medical necessities will be guaranteed to everybody.

The important point about H.R. 676 is that it would eliminate the role of private for-profit insurance companies. They would no longer be taking our money and giving us only 2/3rds of our dollars’ worth of health coverage in return. They would no longer be in control of the decisions about our healthcare system.

We would have no co-pays, no deductibles, no insurance company denials, no pre-existing conditions, no insurance loss or portability problems if we decide to change jobs or move to another part of the country.

What would it mean for our nation to win this struggle for single payer healthcare for all - controlled by us, the citizens?

Beyond having a guaranteed quality healthcare system for all, the power that we will gain through winning this huge victory will enhance our ability to demand an end to privatization of many of our other necessities – the human needs of the people.

Here are some suggestions of what we might win:

• the greedy loan sharks, including the banks and the credit card companies would be brought under control
• campaign finance reform would be put in place
• college would be free to all children who aspire to higher education
• housing loans and quality housing would be available without the kind of interest-gouging we have seen in recent years
• people who have been imprisoned and have paid their debt to society would be able to become respected citizens with an equal chance at education and jobs and a role as voting citizens
• private mercenaries would no longer be threatening civilian control over military decisions
• private companies would be allowed to earn profits and play a role in developing new energy sources and jobs, but those private corporations would no longer receive no bid contracts or receive any government money for their projects unless they were willing to come under regulations required by a government of, by and for the people

Ok, so this is a long road ahead. But it is the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and of millions of Americans. The first step is national single payer healthcare coverage for all.

Will We Win?

Will we win passage of this bill covering national healthcare for all? The answer is “yes.” It is not a matter of whether. It is a matter of when. Only you and I can determine the answer to that question. We can’t count on Congress or Presidential Candidates to make it happen. Will it be hard to do? Indeed, yes! But, we ask you to join with millions of others in working full-throttle toward the goal of quality guaranteed healthcare for all:

1. Call your Member of Congress to be sure he/she has endorsed H.R. 676

2. Get your City Council to endorse (see guidelines and a list of cities on our site)

3. Get your governor to call on the National Governor’s Conference to sign on

4. Get your church, mosque, synagogue or other faith group to join in planning a national meeting of faith groups in Newark in conjunction with the August 25th march – Get more details from Healthcare-NOW.

5. Get your business organization or your labor union to sign on in support of H.R. 676. Be in touch with Healthcare-NOW and the Business Leaders for Single Payer.

6. Organize a healthcare TRUTH HEARING in your community.

7. Volunteer some time to help us build this national campaign.

8. Contribute – help make it happen.

9. Be in touch with Healthcare-NOW to find out how to organize. 1-800-453-1305.

REMEMBER: We are many; they are few. This is a struggle we can win.

“Power concedes nothing without a struggle!” -Frederick Douglass

Marilyn Clement is the National Coordinator of Healthcare-NOW. Click here to contact Ms. Clement and Healthcare-NOW.

Click here to read any of the articles in this special BC series on Single-Payer Healthcare.