[Sosfbay-discuss] Due 2 Pressure from Greens & Progressives Healthcare Summit to include 2 (out of 118!!!) Single Payer Advocates

Thu Mar 5 08:52:47 PST 2009

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/40448

Two Spokespeople for Americans Will Join 118 Lobbyists Etc. at the
Healthcare Summit - Rally Cancelled
Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2009-03-05 02:19.

    * Civil Rights / Liberties

This afternoon we received word that Dr. Oliver Fein, president of
Physicians for a National Health Program, has been invited to participate
in tomorrow's White House summit on health care. He will therefore be
joining Rep. John Conyers in the meeting as a strong advocate for a
single-payer national health program.

Given this development, we are canceling the demonstration outside the
White House that was planned for tomorrow.

While it remains true that the number of single-payer advocates in the
summit will be few in number, we feel we have won an important victory and
that demonstrative activity at the White House at this juncture is
unnecessary.

Please continue to urge your members of Congress and President Obama to
support single-payer national health insurance, the only fundamental
solution to our health care crisis.

And thanks to everyone who called and e-mailed the White House about
including the single-payer viewpoint at the summit - you helped make this
victory happen!

Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 20:53:54 +0000
From: Scott McLarty <scottmclarty at hotmail.com>
Subject: [usgp-dx] GP ADVISORY Greens support protest of Obama's
        barring of single-payer advocates from March 5 health summit at
White House

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614,
mclarty at greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene at gp.org

Greens urge widespread protest over President Obama's exclusion of
Single-Payer/Medicare For All advocates from the March 5 health care
reform summit at the White House

? Two protests scheduled: (1) in front of the White House on Thursday,
March 5, organized by Physicians for a National Health Program and other
single-payer groups; (2) "Burn Your Health Insurance Bill Day" outside of
a health insurance lobby meeting in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, March 11

? "The First 100 Days: What Would a Green Administration Look Like?"
(video and text) http://www.gp.org/first100

WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders said today that Americans should be
furious over President Obama's barring of advocates for single-payer (also
called Medicare For All) from his March 5 health care summit.

Greens urged widespread protest, including rallies and phone calls to the
White House and to Congress members, over the exclusion.  Polls have
demonstrated consistent popular support for a national health care program
that guarantees universal coverage
(http://www.wpasinglepayer.org/PollResults.html).

The 120 guests invited to the White House meeting include lobbyists for the
for-profit insurance industry, as well as members of Congress, including
Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus, who has declared the
single-payer ?off the table.?  The Center for Responsive Politics has
documented the campaign money that the insurance industry has given to
Democrats and Republicans for their leverage over health care and other
policies (http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=F09), with a
total of $46,002,881 in insurance lobby contributions in 2008.

Green Party leaders encourraged support for and attendance at two protest
actions in Washington, DC over President Obama's exclusion of single-payer
voices from the summit:

? Physicians for a National Health Program (http://www.pnhp.org) and other
members of the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care and the
National Single Payer Alliance, will demonstrate on Thursday, March 5,
from noon to 1:00 pm at Lafayette Square in front of the White House.
Health care providers are encouraged to bring their white coats.  More
information: Danielle Alexander, 202-662-0614, danielle at pnhp.org

? Single-payer supporters will hold a "Burn Your Health Insurance Bill Day"
demonstration (http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/03) on Wednesday,
March 11, 10 am in front of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in downtown Washington,
DC.  The address is 1150 22nd Street, NW, near the Dupont Circle and
GWU/Foggy Bottom Metro stations.  Inside the Ritz-Carlton, America's
Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the main Washington lobbying group for
health insurance corporations, will meet to discuss plans to derail
single-payer (http://www.ahip.org/links/policy2009/).

"President Obama, along with most Democrats and Republicans in Congress,
has chosen the demands of the for-profit health insurance industry over
America's need for universal health care.  The Green Party supports the
single-payer national health plan, which covers all Americans and would
rescue those who now face financial ruin because they lack insurance or
have inadequate coverage," said David Doonan, Village Mayor of Greenwich,
New York and a member of the Green Party.

"Single-payer will cut national health care costs by as much as a third,
significantly reduce what working Americans pay for health coverage, and
provide everyone with guaranteed quality care regardless of ability to
pay, income, age, or prior medical condition.  Furthermore, single-payer
will give everyone full choice of health care provider and drastically cut
the paperwork that plagues physicians and other health professionals,"
added Jody Grage, treasurer of the Green Party of the United States.

Greens note that enactment of a Single-Payer program would boost the
ailing US economy and provide relief for businesses large and small, since
it would cancel the high expense and administrative burden of
employer-based health care benefits
(http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=158).  Rep. John Conyers'
(D-Mich.) bill for Single-Payer (HR 676,
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc110/h676_ih.xml) has strong Green Party
support.

Read "An International Perspective on Health Care Reform" by Connecticut
Green Party member John R. Battista, MD
(http://www.gp.org/first100/?p=119), published on the Green Party's web
site as part of "The First 100 Days: What Would a Green Administration
Look Like?" (http://www.gp.org/first100)

For a comparison of mandate plans and Single-Payer , see "Talking Points:
Why the mandate plans won't work, and why Single-Payer 'Medicare for All'
is what we need" by Len Rodberg, PhD, published by Physicians for a
National Health Program
(http://www.pnhp.org/news/2008/december/talking_points_why_.php).