Our Last Chance on State Single Payer Option
While the political process in Washington suffers through its grotesque pantomime on health care, let us prepare our neighborhoods, our communities, our states for the eventual triumph of single payer health care.
Dear Friends,
Thank you for all of your efforts on behalf of the Kucinich Amendment for a state single payer option which would protect the right of states to pursue a single payer health care system.
Unfortunately, the House Leadership has rejected the many appeals on behalf of the amendment and will not reverse their decision which removed the amendment from the bill. Therefore, the Kucinich Amendment for a state single payer option will not be included in the Manager's Amendment and is not in the bill which will come before the House soon.
The Kucinich amendment represents the most powerful challenge to the insurance companies' control of our health care system. Even the possibility of a state single payer system will make the insurance companies think twice before they raise premiums. The higher the insurance premiums, the more vulnerable companies are to citizens' efforts to create alternatives such as a single payer system. We should never be locked into higher and higher premiums!
I do not accept the decision to remove the amendment from the bill. Nor should you.
We will have one more opportunity to offer the American people a true choice regarding health care. Once the health care bill passes the House, and the Senate passes its version, the two bills will go to a Conference Committee. It is at this point that we will have one more chance. We need to insist that the Kucinich Amendment be included in the Conference Committee report, since that is what will ultimately become law.
Why would we be successful in conference when Leadership refused our appeals in the Manager's Amendment? Very simple. They may need the votes to achieve final passage! We should not quit.
We have come a great distance already. You helped get the Kucinich Amendment through the Education and Labor Committee. Let's make one more try to get it into the Conference report. Your calls, letters, emails and visits make a difference.
Thank you. Dennis
Please contribute to continue the movement for single payer.
http://kucinich.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=46&Itemid=58petition:
http://healthcare.kucinich.us/petition/