Health Care for California: Call today to support SB 810, the California Health Security Act, and come to Sacramento on June 29 for the hearing!

Thanks to tireless advocacy by people from across the state, SB 810, the California Health Security Act, will have a hearing on June 29 at 1:30 p.m. in the Assembly Health Committee Room 4202, at the Capitol.

Passage of the bill by Assembly Health is a first step through committees, to the Assembly Floor, and then to the Governor. Let's keep up the fight for health care legislation that will provide universal coverage, broaden benefits, and control costs. SB 810 eliminates health insurance companies in California and sets up a state-run California Healthcare System funded by the money currently going into the private system from federal and state budgets, employers, and tax-payers. SB 810 targets spending to where it's needed: doctors, clinics and other providers, and not to excess overhead and administrative costs. Need to learn more? Click here. And support SB 810 with one or both of these actions:

Call your Assembly member and say you want a Yes vote on SB 810. Voter pressure got the bill this far--let's keep it up until it's law! Please call, fax, write, or email your assembly member, especially if you can't attend the hearing. Get their contact information at www.leginfo.ca.gov.

Attend the hearing. A big turnout is crucial to show the Assembly Health Committee and state government that SB 810 has the people's support. Buses and carpools are leaving from San Francisco, East Bay, Central Valley and Placer County--click here to connect with organizers.

Remember, one in five Californians have no health insurance at all. Fewer employers are providing coverage. Insurance premiums are rising four times as fast as wages. And even with the passage of the national health care bill, millions of Americans will still be uninsured, underinsured, or paying far too much of their incomes for coverage. SB 810 gives California an opportunity to show the country what real health insurance reform looks like. Call to support the bill, and join with others in Sacramento on June 29. Thank you!

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Californians: Make your calls for SB810 and single payer health care

The prospects for a national health care bill may be fading with the Republican Senate win in Massachusetts, but California has a chance to institute real health care reform by passing SB 810.

SB 810 would establish the California Healthcare System (CHS), a single-payer health care plan that would provide coverage for which all 37 million Californians would be eligible. This bill would mandate the combining under one administration, the CHS, exciting state-administered health care programs with the privately funded insurance industry, and the state's unisured. The CHS would, on a single-payer basis, negotiate with providers or set fees for health care services and would pay claims for those services.

This bill has broad support from many in the California Senate and Assembly, the California Nurses Association, National Nurses United, the healthcare community, labor groups, the California School Employees Association, medical students and many other groups. California is one of more than half a dozen states where single payer legislation will be considered this year. Let's take the lead on real health care reform, and hope that "as California goes, so goes the nation!"

Please take action today!

SB 810 was first introduced in the 2009 legislative session, but held in the Senate Appropriations Committee and never made it to the Senate floor for a vote and therefore didn't make it to the Assembly for a vote.

Now, on January 21, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted 6 - 3 to pass it to the Senate for a vote. The full Senate is expected to vote no later than Friday, January 29.

Please take the time to call your state Senator and let them know that you support SB 810 because:

• SB 810 will will establish healthcare for all Californians, and provide health security for California families
• SB 810 will create thousands of good paying jobs in the state and generate critical revenues for California businesses.

Your State Senator needs to hear from you. And even though you may not be in the district of these following Senators, please call or email their offices and say you are asking for their support as a resident of the state that wants and needs a single-payer health care system for all Californians.

Senator Ron Calderon (Montebello)
Phone: 916-651-4030
Email: senator.calderon@sen.ca.gov

Senator Lou Correa (Santa Ana)
Phone: 916-651-4034
Email: senator.correa@sen.ca.gov

Senator Rod Wright (Los Angeles)
Phone: 916-651-4025
Email: senator.wright@sen.ca.gov

You can read an analysis of the bill here:
http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/sen/sb_0801-0850/sb_810_cfa_20100121_091013_sen_comm.html

Corporations make their voices heard by pledging financial support to the candidates they like. And don't forget that the Supreme Court just exponentially increased their influence. We have our voices--use your's today!

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Alert: Money trumps the human right to health and the public interest

Over many months, we've learned about the huge amounts the health care [sic] industry spent lobbying Congress and influencing the 2008 Congressional elections. Now, Brad Jacobson documents that candidate Obama was also heavily funded by the same interests. In "Obama Received $20 Million from Health Care Industry in 2008 Campaign" he reports that Obama "received almost three times the amount given to McCain" including $11.7m from health professionals, $1.4m from health services and HMOs, $3.3m from hospitals and nursing homes, and $2.1m from pharmaceutical and health product companies. The health insurance industry donated $712,317 as well.

As Jacobson writes, such contributions must account for the fact that candidate Obama advocated for universal health care and criticized mandated health insurance, while President Obama excluded single-payer advocates from White House healthcare summits and has strongly endorsed mandates.

ACT NOW - Don't hesitate
House members returned to Congress on January 12. Call your Representative to say you want the ERISA waiver, originally proposed in an amendment to the House Bill by Rep. Kucinich, included in the House/Senate negotiations on the final bill.

ERISA, the federal law that oversees employee benefit plans, including health insurance, can be used to challenge state-level singlepayer programs.

An ERISA waiver will allow state singlepayer healthcare legislation now underway specifically in California, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and elsewhere to move forward without a federal challenge at the behest of the for-profit insurance industry.

Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121, or online Congressional directory here.

Thank you for taking action today!

Nancy, Peter, David, Rick, Barbara, Ruth W., Ruth C., and Lou
Alliance for Democracy's Committee for Single Payer Health Care

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"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

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Single payer to Senate floor--call to support Amendment 2837 now!

Last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders, filed Amendment 2837 to the Senate health reform bill. The Amendment creates a universal single payer health care system. The amendment was co-sponsored by Sen. Roland Burris (D-Il) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH).

The vote on the measure could take place very soon, so it's urgent that you call your Senators to demand they join you in supporting Sanders's amendment and single payer health care.

The amendment delivers care through a single non-profit public funding agency, and is based on Sanders's single payer bill, S. 703. The amendment allows patient choice of doctor or hospital, coverage for dental care, mental health services and prescription drugs, and fully funds community health centers.

The program will be paid for by combining current government health care spending with new payroll and income taxes, which will total less than what most businesses and individuals currently pay for private insurance premiums and/or out of pocket expenses.

Call, email, or fax your senators in support of 2387.You can reach the Capitol Switchboard toll free at 866-220-0044, or email from this page on Change.org.

Remember that actions in support of single payer health care, including sit-ins at some senate district offices, are being planned for Human Rights Day, December 10, by Mobilization for Health Care for All. If there's one near you, be there! If you're far from the halls of power, speak truth to your neighbors by writing a letter to the editor of your local paper. See this page for info on the Sanders Amendment, this great piece by Donna Smith of Progressive Democrats of America Healthcare Not Warfare campaign for inspiration, and our Health Care Truths and Myths brochure for the facts on single payer health care.

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Health care debate and the single payer fight moves to the Senate--call today to support Sanders' amendments to health care bill

After our many alerts for action at each stage of the struggle for real health care reform in the House, our attention now turns to the Senate.

Late Saturday night, after debate over allowing debate on the Patient Protection and Affordability Act, Senate Democrats stopped the threat of a Republican filibuster on a party-line vote 60-39.

Today, please take action to bring the single payer argument to the Senate: Physicians for a National Health Program report Senator Bernie Sanders will introduce two single payer/Medicare for All amendments to the Senate bill.

The first would create a national single-payer/Medicare for All plan, similar to his earlier S. 703 and Conyer’s H.R. 676, and the second would allow states to adopt single payer similar to Rep. Kucinich’s amendment that never got to the House floor.

Please call your senators now (capital switchboard 202-224-3121, or call their offices directly) and urge them to vote "yes" on Sanders' two single-payer amendments.

You may send a fax directly from the PNHP website here.

PNHP writes: The Senate bill like the House version (H.R.3962) is totally inadequate. In brief, it gives $450 billion in taxpayer money to the private insurance industry, along with an individual mandate that shunts them millions of mandatory new customers for their defective product. It doesn’t expand Medicaid or private coverage for another four years, until 2014, and event then would leave over half of the uninsured – 24 million people – without any coverage. The puny “public option” would only cover 1 percent of Americans. All key elements of the bill have already been tried and failed to reduce the number of uninsured or health care costs at the state level. The only durable result is likely to be a strengthening of the power of the insurance and drug companies to hijack the reform process.

Read more:
From PNHP: Talking points on HR 3962 with some comparisons to the Senate (Reid) bill in bold here

From PNHP: Robert Reich, "The public option ain't what it used to be"

Huffington Post: "Meet the New Health Care Reform, Same as the Old Health Care Reform"

Human Rights Day on December 10th. The Single Payer Coaliton, including AfD, is working to build actions on that day. Now is the time for you to write a Letter to the Editor to your local paper on healthcare as a human right not a corporate right to profit. Why should the corporate person deny care to real persons? Please contact info@healthcare-now.org if you would like to organize an action near you.

Thank you for taking action today!
AfD’s Single Payer/Medicare for All Team...
Nancy, Peter, David, Rick, Barbara, Ruth W., Ruth C., and Lou

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To do: Call senators in support of S 703 and Kucinich Amendment

Please set aside some time this week to call your senators on behalf of Sen. Bernie Sanders' single payer bill, S 703. And ask your senators to support reinstating Rep. Dennis Kucinich's state single-payer amendment when the House and Senate versions of the health care reform bill go to conference committee.

Here's Sen. Sanders talking to Rachel Maddow about the Stupak Amendment, and cost containment in the absence of a public option to compete with private plans:

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No vote on Weiner Amendment

Here's the statement from Healthcare-NOW and associated groups, including AfD:

On the eve of what could have been the first vote on single-payer legislation in our nation's history, we have just learned that because of last minute developments, the vote and debate on Congressman Weiner's single-payer amendment will not happen.

Speaker Pelosi received a statement from Rep. Kucinich and Rep. Conyers, the co-authors of HR 676, that they do not think that this is the right time for a vote on national single-payer legislation. They made this statement despite the extensive mobilization in support of this vote across the country. In addition, Speaker Pelosi felt that offering a single-payer amendment would open the floodgates to amendments proposed to limit abortion funds, restrict immigrant access to healthcare, and other regressive legislation.

Let us remember that the potential vote on Congressman Weiner's single-payer amendment resulted from holding fast to our principles of universal, comprehensive healthcare with no financial barriers. These efforts have brought truth and clarity to a national debate on healthcare reform that has been polluted by the corporate influence over Congress. While the private insurance industry has sent 3,000 lobbyists to Capitol Hill this year, spending 1.4 million dollars a day to shape reform that protects their profits, our calls, faxes, and demonstrations have created the momentum to bring legislation based on HR 676 to the floor of the House and Senate.

The vote for Congressman Weiner's single-payer amendment would have allowed advocates to have their representatives on record as single-payer supporters.

But this legislative battle is not yet over. Our focus can now turn to two remaining efforts for single-payer in this Congress. Sen. Bernie Sanders will introduce S 703 in coming weeks, and we understand that he is considering editing it to be more like HR 676. We will have the opportunity again to see the first ever vote on single-payer in this Congress. In addition, Rep. Kucinich's amendment to allow states to more easily implement a single-payer system may be reinserted into the bill during the conference committee between the House and Senate.

All of these efforts are crucial to building the movement for the only solution to our healthcare crisis - single-payer national healthcare.

If this Congress passes inadequate legislation, there will no doubt be emboldened state movements in the coming years. We welcome them. But let us not forget the movement to push our federal legislators to meet the demands of the people, not roll that responsibility onto the states. Healthcare-NOW! and the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care remains committed to a national, single-payer solution to the healthcare crisis. Comprehensive, quality healthcare is a right that should be extended to every U.S. resident.

At this important time, let us not forget how far we have come. Either now or later, a single-payer national healthcare system must come to the table. We will keep building the movement to make that happen.

For healthcare justice,

Healthcare-NOW!

Physicians for a National Health Program

Progressive Democrats of America

Public Citizen
Healthcare for All Texas
Western PA Coalition for Single Payer
Alliance for Democracy

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Breaking news from PNHP: Weiner Amendment could possibly come to the floor Friday/Saturday

Physicians for a National Health Program reports that Rep. Anthony Weiner's Medicare for All amendment may come to a floor vote this Friday or Saturday, with a short debate session allowed--20 minutes or so.

If you called, faxed, or emailed, you helped make this happen. Thank you!

Now it's time to get your Congress member to vote yes. Every support vote is important.

Send a fax to your member of Congress here, through 1payer.net. Or write your own health care message and send it by clicking here.

Then follow the fax up with a phone call. The Congressional switchboard is (202) 224-3121, or you can look up your rep's website by name or by your zip at the top of the House web page here.

If your Representative is a co-sponsor of HR 676, thank him or her and tell them you expect consistent support for single payer through the vote on the Weiner Amendment.

No industry lobbying group, no well-connected corporate board members, no "corporate persons," want to see a health care reform bill that puts people before profits. But our work won't end until we get what works, what's fair, and what's right--an everybody-in, nobody out, single payer health care system. So speak out now!

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We are having an impact! Keep calling!

Just another reminder that it's not too late to call Congress for state level single payer and for a House debate and vote on the Weiner Amendment.

The managers' amendment that can put the Kucinich amendment back into the legislation has not been released. Members of Congress have received many phone calls--hopefully your's too! The push for single payer is working. Please keep it up and call. Email friends to tell them to call. Blog, facebook, tweet, chat--however you get the word out, do it now!

Take the two following steps, and tell others to do the same:

1. Keep the Kucinich amendment in HR 3269! The Kucinich amendment makes changes to ERISA law that make it possible for states to pass single payer and not have it challenged on the basis of ERISA.

2. Keep the promise and let the Weiner amendment come to the floor of the house for a debate and vote. This will be the first time that single payer has come to a vote in the House. It is historic and we don't want to lose this opportunity.

Call:
Speaker Pelosi at 202-225-4965
Majority Leader Hoyer at 202-225-4131
Chairman Waxman at 202-225-3976

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Keep the promise on Weiner Amendment, include Kucinich Amendment in reform bill.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives introduced its healthcare bill. And threw us all under the bus.

No Kucinich Amendment. This amendment would have eliminated a legal hurdle that currently can be used to prevent states from creating their own single payer systems. But this amendment is nowhere in the final bill.

And now the Weiner Amendment may never come to the floor for a vote, despite Nancy Pelosi's promise last summer.

But there's one last chance for the Kucinich Amendment: House leaders can call for a "Manager's Amendment" even when a bill--like this health reform bill--is closed to any other amendments. A Manager's Amendment is a package of individual amendments agreed to by "the managers", the majority and minority member of the House who manage their side's debate on a bill.

Here are the House members to call, with Washington and district office numbers--demand that the Kucinich Amendment be included in the House bill.

• Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Washington, DC, office (202) 225-4965; San Francisco office (415) 556-4862
• Majority Leader Steny Hoyer: Washington, DC, office (202) 225-4131; Greenbelt office (301) 474-0119; Waldorf office (301) 843-1577
• Rep. Henry Waxman: Washington, DC, office (202) 225-3976; Los Angeles office (323) 651-1040
• Rep. Charles Rangel: Washington, DC, office (202) 225-4365; New York office (212) 663-3900
• Rep. George Miller: Washington, DC, office (202) 225-2095; Concord office (925) 602-1880; Richmond office (510) 262-6500; Vallejo office (707) 645-1888

And remind Nancy Pelosi to honor her word and allow the Weiner Amendment to go to a floor for debate and vote.

We've come a long way in this fight, and regardless of what happens in the next few weeks in Washington, it will continue--both on the state level for single payer and across the country as we continue to take back our government from corporate rule. We thank you for taking action and urge you to spread the word to friends, family and fellow activists: Make the call today for a Manager's Amendment and for a vote on the Weiner Amendment.

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Last call for single payer?

The Weiner Amendment for Single Payer is expected to go to a floor vote in the House of Representatives on Thursday, October 15.

Please--get busy, get to the phone, and call on your Representative to support single payer. Thanks for all you've done to date... now, we are coming down to the wire!

The Weiner Amendment substitutes a single payer bill for the complicated and fiscally unsustainable legislation being considered by the House. For information on the current single payer bill, HR 676, see this page on Rep. John Conyers's website. Rep. Conyers is the primary sponsor of HR 676, which currently has 88 co-sponsors. Rep. Joe Baca (CA-43) signed up last week, so it is not too late to ask your representative to co-sponsor too!

Don't just get mad that the health [sic] care industry has spent $380 million-plus on lobbying and advertising in just the last few months.... or that the Senate Finance Committee bill was written by a former Wellpoint V.P., now Baucus' principle staffer on health care reform... or that a recent study documented that
more than 44,000 Americans die each year for lack of insurance.

Get busy!

• Call your representative and ask that he or she vote to support the Weiner Amendment.


• Ask your rep to also support the Kucinich amendment so state governments can create their own single payer programs.
• On the Senate side, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will introduce two single-payer amendments to the Senate health care bill. One to create a national single-payer plan, the other to allow states to adopt single-payer. Your senators need to hear from you as well. Call them now!


• Finally, tell everyone you know to let their voices be heard before it's too late.

As Leonard Rodberg has written, we're being presented with a false choice. Some Democrats and pundits claim we need to pass a plan--any plan--to avoid a Gingrich-style House takeover next year. But the plan, he writes, "is a DOG... Relatively few people will benefit from it, while everyone who has to use health care will continue to experience the mess that is, and will continue to be, the American health care system.

As long as money drives politics, politicians will follow the lead of donors, not voters. As long as health care is a for-profit business for investors, premiums will rise and insurers will cherry-pick the healthiest and wealthiest subscribers.

We say health care is a right and our government should respond to our call for a health care system that respects the people's right to decent, affordable care. We demand single payer, the real cure for ailing health care and a damaged democracy.

Make your call today! Thank you!

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Last best push for single payer? Do your bit!

Some time in the next two weeks there will be a House floor vote on single payer health care. This is our last, best chance to push for real universal, equitable coverage--"everybody in, nobody out."

Please join with hundreds of thousands of Americans--doctors, nurses and health care professionals, union members and municipal employees and managers, elected officials and regular citizens, in this push to make the strongest case possible for single payer health care. We need to reach every legislator, Republican and Democrat, to get the broadest support possible both for the Weiner Amendment, on single payer health care, and the Kucinich Amendment to HR 3200, which would allow states to establish their own single payer systems if a national bill fails.

Even if your Representative is a co-sponsor of HR 676 (check here) make the call to let him or her know you expect support for these vital reforms.

In the last year we've seen, heard, and shared stories of coverage denied and delayed by insurance companies, and learned about the immense tolls taken in lives and family security, all in the name of industry profit. It's time for us to demand that our legislators put the public's health before private wealth.

Please call your representative today, and urge him or her to support the Weiner Amendment for single-payer health care, and the Kucinich Amendment, to remove legal impediments to state single payer programs. You can call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224–3121, or look up your representative's direct line here and here.

And please call House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at (202) 225-0100; Majority Leader Steny Hoyer at (202) 225-3130, and key committee chair Henry Waxman at (202) 225-3976, to ensure their continued support for the Kucinich amendment.

Corporate lobbyists are making their case every day for lukewarm reforms that benefit private insurers and for-profit health care and pharmaceutial interests. They have the money, but we have the voices, and the votes. Make your voice heard now!

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Hey, NYTimes! Something's missing here!

This insipid post to the New York Times Prescriptions blog on Friday would have been stronger if the discussion of single payer actually included--wait for it--an advocate for single payer!

Fairness and Accuracy in Media, and a slew of angry comment-leavers, noted the omission.

Clark Hoyt is the New York Times public editor (aka the guy who takes complaints). Please call at 212-556-7652, or email public@nytimes.com to express disapproval of Prescription's one-sided coverage of the viability of a single payer system.

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Fox News boycott focuses on Beck's advertisers

A grassroots initiative to get companies to pull ads from Fox News is gaining traction, with Geico insurance the latest corporation to withdraw support of Glenn Beck's show. Geico joins a small but growing list of corporations.

For a list of companies to boycott with phone contacts, see wikoogle's diary on Daily Kos (this is the most recent post relating to the boycott, so check for updates if you are reading this a few days late). For background on the boycott, visit www.FoxNewsBoycott.com and ColorOfChange.org, and for a link to an email blast to all entities still bankrolling paleoconservative "infotainment," check out Democrats.com.

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HR 676 will be debated by the House after recess--now here's what you have to do to help it pass!

Friday night as the House Energy and Commerce Committee completed its markup of HR 3200, the House health reform bill, Chairman Henry Waxman interrupted Representative Anthony Weiner of New York to say that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had promised that single payer legislation, HR 676, The United States National Health Care Act would come before the entire House of Representatives. Chairman Waxman advised:

"The Speaker has said that she will allow this to be brought up on the House floor, and debated, and voted on."



Representative Anthony Weiner (NY-9, Brooklyn/Queens) had placed an amendment (read it here) before the Energy and Commerce Committee that would have replaced the text of HR 3200 with the text of HR 676, the United States National Health Care Act. He was joined by fellow Energy and Commerce committee members Peter Welch (VT, Vermont), Mike Doyle (PA-14, Pittsburgh), Tammy Baldwin, (WI-2, Madison), Jan Schakowsky (IL-9, Chicago), Bobby L. Rush (IL-1, Chicago), Eliot L. Engel (NY-17, Rockland/Westchester).

Chairman Waxman asked for the single payer amendment to be withdrawn from committee debate in exchange for a debate and vote on the House floor. Representative Weiner hailed this victory in a brief statement: "Single-payer is a better plan and now it is on center stage. Americans have a clear choice. Their Member of Congress will have a simpler, less expensive and smarter bill to choose. I am thrilled that the Speaker is giving us that choice."

You can see video of Rep. Weiner introducing the amendment here.

This entry on Physicians for a National Health Plan's blog includes more video links and commentary by a few Hill bloggers.

So what does this mean?

It means you have your marching orders. The recess is make or break time for single payer. We can't just let our legislators spend August fundraising!

Call your representative and senators' district offices and find out their schedules. Bird-dog them. Go to "town meeting" events and state your support for single payer--chances are you'll get a lot of support from the audience.
It's up to us. Calls, visits, postcard and petition campaigns all build visibility, educate our neighbors, and inspire them to act as well.

Don't forget to let your legislator know that inaction on behalf of single payer health care will have political consequences. The decision to allow a floor debate on HR 676 didn't just happen--we made it happen by calling, writing, emailing, and in some cases demonstrating--up to the point of getting arrested. More than 50,000 people contacted Energy and Commerce Committee members in support of the Weiner amendment in just the past week. We need to keep up the contacts, not just with our legislators but with family, friends, co-workers, faith groups--to bring them into the fight as well.

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The latest on the single-payer vote

The vote on Rep. Anthony Weiner's single payer amendment has been postponed to Friday. According to Democrats.com & Bob Fertik, House Energy and Commerce Committee chair Harvey Waxman is postponing the vote because it might pass, especially on the heels of the Kucinich Amendment for a single-payer state option, which passed by a healthy bi-partisan majority.

Fertik also points out that the truth about single payer is getting out, and it's not just the people who are telling it. Last night, during President Obama's press conference, he concurred with the medical community, the developed world, and common sense:

"I want to cover everybody. Now, the truth is that, unless you have a single-payer system, in which everybody is automatically covered, then you're probably not going to reach every single individual."

Democrats.com has a handy whip list of Dems on the Energy and Commerce Committee who are leaning "yes" on single payer, or who have not indicated their stand:

Lean Yes
Diana DeGette, CO01, 202-225-4431
Jane Harman, CA36, 202-225-8220
Christopher Murphy, CT05, 202-225-4476
Frank Pallone, NJ06, 202-225-4671
Bobby Rush, IL01, 202-225-4372
Peter Welch, VT00, 202-225-4115

Won't Say / "Not Enought Votes"
Rick Boucher, VA09, 202-225-3861
Bruce Braley, IA01, 202-225-2911
G.K. Butterfield, NC01, 202-225-3101
Lois Capps, CA23, 202-225-3601
Kathy Castor, FL11, 202-225-3376
John Dingell, MI15, 202-225-4071
Charles Gonzalez, TX20, 202-225-3236
Gene Green, TX29, 202-225-1688
Jay Inslee, WA01, 202-225-6311
Doris Matsui, CA05, 202-225-7163
Jerry McNerney, CA11, 202-225-1947
John Sarbanes, MD03, 202-225-4016
Bart Stupak, MI01, 202-225-4735
Betty Sutton, OH13, 202-225-3401
Henry Waxman (Chair), CA30, 202-225-3976

If these folks can be brought on board, the amendment will pass. Your calls are vital and they are working!

Democrats.com is collecting feedback from calls here. We'd also like to hear what your reps have to say--you can post a comment here. There's also a petition to representatives at the Democrats.com site.

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Vote Wednesday on Weiner Amendment!

Our office email is down and we just learned that the vote on the Weiner Amendment will be tomorrow, Wednesday, which means that it is not too late for you to call your rep on the House Energy and Commerce Committee or, if your Representative isn't a member, committee chair Henry Waxman at 202-225-3976.

The insurance, health care and drug industries have money. We have our voices and our votes. So pick up that phone now!

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Rep. Weiner's single payer amendment will be introduced Monday

On Monday, Rep. Anthony Weiner will move to amend the Tri-Committee health care reform bill to essentially replace it with HR 676, thereby replacing the private health insurance industry with a single-payer national health insurance program.

The vote on the amendment will take place the same day it is offered -- Monday.

Hopefully you have responded to earlier alerts or postings and called your Representative if he or she sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, or contacted the Committee chair, Rep. Henry Waxman, in support of the Weiner amendment. If not, please call early Monday morning or send a free efax through www.1payer.net. Messages are editable and can go to your own representative so he or she can see that single payer has district support. Here's the url: http://www.1payer.net/faxapp/senders/add/cid:22

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Amendment brings single payer to House committee vote! Call now in support!

Today in his White House press conference, President Obama said he was going to move forward on health care. Bills are at or near completion in both the Senate and House. Today, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions approved their bill, The Affordable Health Choices Act, and, as you know, Rep. John Conyers has sponsored a universal single payer bill, HR676, for several years.

On Tuesday, House Democrats unveiled the Tri-Committee Health Reform Bill.

This is not HR 676. This bill mandates individual coverage and while it offers a variety of public plans, it will cost an estimated $1 trillion over the next ten years while still leaving millions of Americans uninsured or underinsured. And this is before the bill is watered down by conference committees and backroom deals to protect the for-profit health care industry.

This Friday or Monday, but possibly as early as Thursday, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) will introduce, in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, an amendment to substitute Rep. John Conyers's HR 676 single payer bill for the current compromised Tri-Committee bill. The committee, one of three that has jurisdiction over health care, will vote on the amendment the same day it is offered--which is why your call is needed as soon as possible to support Weiner's amendment and the institution of the only truly fair and economical form of universal coverage--a single payer health care system.

Does your representative sit on the Energy and Commerce Committee? If so, contact him or her immediately to say you want them to vote YES on Rep. Weiner's amendment.

You can call toll free at 800-473-6711. Ask for your representative's office. Then ask to speak to the legislative assistant on health care.

Here's a script: "Hello, My name is __________, and as your constituent, I urge the Representative to vote YES on Representative Anthony Weiner's single-payer, HR 676 amendment to the Energy and Commerce Committee's healthcare bill."

Weiner's amendment shows that grassroots pressure can push back against the estimated $1.4 million that the health care industry is spending daily on lobbying and other activities to protect their profits.

HR 676 would create a single payer health care system by expanding a greatly improved Medicare system for everyone. HR 676 ends deductibles and co-payments, and would save hundreds of billions annually by eliminating the high overhead, bureaucracy, and profits of the private health care industry. In the current Congress, HR 676 has 85 co-sponsors in addition to Rep. Conyers, most recently Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania. That a congressman from a relatively conservative district is sponsoring a single payer health care bill shows that our movement is growing--and that other reps from similar districts can be encouraged to sign on too. The companion Senate bill, introduced by Bernie Sanders, is SB 703.

If you don't have a representative on the committee, please call committee Chairman Henry Waxman at 202-225-3976 and tell him to vote YES on the amendment.

Keep up the good work by making another call today!

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