[lbo-talk] Who's working on single payer

Michael McIntyre mcintyremichael at mac.com
Fri Feb 15 16:01:44 PST 2008


OK, didn't mean to step on any toes here. It's good to hear that CNA is the real muscle behind HR676. My district is IL-1, and Bobby Rush has been a cosponsor of HR676 for two years. Most of the Chicago delegation is behind it: Jackson, Davis, Schakowsky. That leaves Lipinski and Emmanuel. I don't think either one is movable in the immediate future (Lipinski is a white racist Chicago Dem of the old school, and Emmanuel is a Clintonista triangulator extraordinaire) - but maybe they can be used as targets to mobilize. Organizationally, PNHP seems to be the big player in Chicago, but their focus has been on the state level (and, again, their constituency is physicians). So . . . . who in Chi-town do I talk to?

More strategically, what's the plan to get some legs under HR676? It was introduced in 2005, and Conyers & Co. still haven't been able to get hearings on the bill, AFAICT. Is the strategy to get enough sponsors to convince the leadership to hold hearings? (And why won't Pelosi schedule hearings on it, for that matter?) Or is the strategy to get enough co-sponsors to bring it directly to the floor of the House? And what's the strategy vis-a-vis McCain, Clinton & Obama? The strategy for McCain, it seems to me, would be fairly straightforward, though difficult: get a lot of co-sponsors, force Pelosi & Reid's hands, line of Dem majorities in both houses in favor of HR676 and against anything McCain proposes (if he proposes anything). Hard to win, but maybe easier to bring the Dem leadership on board as a political maneuver. OTOH, if Obama or Clinton are in office, the the Dem leadership is going to be even more reluctant to give HR676 a shot - all the oxygen will be sucked up by the non- single-payer proposals the new Dem Prez brings to the Hill. So what do CNA et al. propose to do if O'Blinton/Clobama wins?

MM

On Feb 15, 2008, at 5:38 PM, JBrown72073 at cs.com wrote:


> Michael McIntyre wrote:
>> (2) Healthcare NOW doesn't just have a bad web site; they have no
> apparent strategy.
>
> This is not entirely true. I criticized the website because they
> need someone to fix it--to suggest that's a needed task someone
> could take on--not because I don't think the group has plenty to
> offer. But it's a coalition, it works through member groups. And
> its strategy is and has been from the start to work on HR 676...
> the same strategy you propose. Last year we put considerable
> pressure on Charles Rangel to schedule hearings on HR 676, he
> wouldn't. In response, Conyers held unauthorized hearings with
> Michael Moore. There's some film of them on the DVD version of
> SiCKO, as an extra.
>
> Currently Healthcare NOW is encouraging a series of "Truth
> Hearings" to attack the whole individual mandate/market based
> plans, using Mass. as the laboratory case. There is also a week of
> actions planned leading up the the July 30th birthday of Medicare.
> They also have a traveling roadshow.
>
> My experience is that the single-payer focused groups are not
> fragmented, but actually work very well together, although they
> primarily organize their own particular constituencies. The state/
> national split is necessary in states where there's a chance to do
> something, but there's not a philosophical difference. There is,
> fortunately, a deep rift between true national health care
> advocates and various nonprofits and foundation-funded grouplets
> that want to ameliorate the effects of the current system by
> requiring that insurance companies cover certain illnesses, or by
> saying the problem is we need to 'cover the uninsured'--what about
> the insured?!
>
>> (5) In contrast, there's no organized movement of any scale that I
> can discover for the Conyers Bill (HR 676), which apparently can't
> even get hearings scheduled. I think this is the real hole in the
> movement. We need a national bill, I think, for a couple of reasons
> [...]
>
> You may not perceive it from a few hours looking at websites, but
> yes, there is actually a movement for HR 676, now of several years
> standing (the bill was introduced with the same number last
> session, as well.) That's why it has such widespread union
> support, a new development. A hint, the center of resources is not
> Healthcare NOW but CNA. Healthcare NOW's primary purpose is to
> support the bill. That bill, by the way, is almost entirely taken
> from the Labor Party's Just Health Care plan except that the
> funding for severance and retraining of displaced insurance company
> workers was removed.
>
>> So that would be my strategy - focus on the Conyers Bill and link
> state initiatives to it. And I agree that we should do it for Carl
> instead of just kvetching. So, seriously, where do we start?
>
> Here's what we did: Find out if your congressperson has signed onto
> the bill. Ninety or so have. You can find out at SickoCure, just
> enter your zip. If not, who's running against them? Any
> difference? If neither supports the bill, start raising holy hell
> about why not. Go meet with them. Bring 40 people. Get in the
> paper, make some noise. Find out how much insurance money both
> sides are receiving. Hold a Truth Hearing (Healthcare NOW's name
> for hearings they've been encouraging across the country)--start by
> collecting health insurance & health care stories from friends and
> neighbors. Distribute & collect surveys at local clinics or
> through sympathetic docs. Ask for people's phone numbers on the
> survey and ask them if they're willing to speak publicly about
> their experience. We were overwhelmed with people who are mad as
> hell and want to tell someone. We invited state, local and fed.
> elected officials to listen to their constituents and got a bunch
> there. (Don'!
> t let them talk unless they've signed onto the bill, and then only
> for a few minutes.)
>
> But to do all this you need to either join or start a group, so I'd
> suggest you first do a serious investigation (not simply web-based)
> of who's doing what and then go meet them. You might be pleasantly
> surprised that there is actually a movement out there.
>
> Jenny Brown
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list