"Closed-door" talks can't stop us from speaking out for state single payer

With no conference committee planned to reconcile the House and Senate health care reform bills, there's seemingly no way to negotiate a state waiver to ERISA, the federal law that oversees employee benefit plans, including health insurance. ERISA regulations can be used to challenge state-level single payer health care systems, and an ERISA waiver, originally proposed in an amendment to the House bill by Rep. Dennis Kucinich would have helped states start single payer programs without legal challenges from the insurance industry.

But the ERISA waiver is not a dead issue! Please call today to register your support for state-level single payer with the "dealmakers" in the House and Senate, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid, and with your own senators and representatives.

Pelosi, Reid, and their closest allies, worried about more delays and the need for corporate money for the 2010 elections, are willing to not just shut out the "do nothing" Republicans, but also the 82 members of the House Progressive Caucus; the Blue Dog Dems have only 52 members.

It seems they will use a "ping-pong" approach to work out the differences in a "take this/take that" process to get a set of agreed upon changes for one final amendment to the bill to be passed and signed by the President before the mid-January State of the Union Address.

The best way to sustain the single payer movement is to take it to the states, where voters' voices can better match corporate cash. Call to demand an ERISA waiver in the final bill.

Please take action today!

Defend established and emerging single payer campaigns. In California, SB 810, the California Universal Healthcare Act may get out of the Senate Appropriations Committee and to the Senate floor for a vote this week. And other states including New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania are also working on single payer plans.

Please call Senator Reid, Rep. Pelosi, and your own senators and representatives and demand inclusion of the ERISA waiver in the final version of the health care reform bill. You can also customize and send a fax through Health Justice's single payer action site.
http://www.1payer.net/faxapp/senders/add/cid:50

Senator Harry Reid: 202-224-3542
Rep. Nancy Pelosi: (202) 225-4965
Capitol switchboard: (202) 224-3121, or online Congressional directory
here