Stop the Single Payer Shut-out! by Ralph Nader

Stop the Single Payer Shut-out!
by Ralph Nader
Common Dreams
May 9, 2009

Last month at a breakfast meeting with reporters, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) responded to a question about health care with these revealing and exasperating words: "Over and over again, we hear single payer, single payer, single payer. Well, it's not going to be a single payer."

Never mind that 75 members of her party have signed onto H.R. 676-the Conyers single payer legislation. Never mind that in her San Francisco district, probably three out of four people want single payer.

What is more remarkable is that many more than the 75 members of the House privately believe single payer is the best option. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Ted Kennedy, and Nancy Pelosi are among them. But they all say, single payer "is not practical" so it's off the table.

But "it's not practical" because these politicians fear the insurance and pharmaceutical industries-and seek their campaign contributions-more than they fear the American people. It comes down to the corporations, who have no votes, are organized to the teeth and the people are not.

So, when Senator Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a large recipient of health insurance and drug company donations, held a public roundtable discussion on May 5, fifteen witnesses were preparing to deliver their statements. Not one of them was championing single payer.

However, moral and evidential courage is coming. On May 12, 2009, Senator Baucus is having another roundtable discussion with thirteen more witnesses, including those from the business lobbies and their consultants. Word has it that the Senator is about to invite a leading single payer advocate to sit at the table.

Here come the people! Join this historic drive to have our country join the community of western, and some third-world, nations by adopting a state of the art single payer system.

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/09

And this isn't about the 2000 presidential campaign so please be nice and stay on topic if you have a comment on single payer.

I hope more MDs and health care workers join as well as people who have suffered from the lack of health care. If they don't hear from us, nothing will change.

Thanks Ralph!!

Since single payer isn't going to happen this year, its followers may end up killing the reform that is possible, leaving millions who would have had health care without.

This is Ralph Nader's specialty - destroying progress by liberals.

I agree that corporations can stop progress for some time. But eventually the corporations will be defeated.

Ralph is just showing how corporations rule our elected official. I agree with him..

It's fraud.

And your argument is Rush Limbaugh's specialty -- pretending corporate theft is "progress."

It will have some flaws too. Your insistence on perfection would leave millions without health care. Isn't that a flaw in your position?

I have nothing to do with Rush Limbaugh and I don't pretend corporate theft is progress. I don't know where you got that from.

When I heard about the Senate hearing on the John Dean conference call, I called Baucus' office and told him we need the "Public Option" passed as part of the Healthcare Bill. This is what Dean is recommending and how I believe it is politically possible to get to Single Payer. But whether you agree with the Public Option approach or believe we can push to go straight to single payer - here's the thing - we can't get there by typing alone. In the absence of a massive healthcare protest on the streets of DC (by the way, I can't understand why we're not doing this?) we need direct and sustained action by the thousands of folks here at DU and others across the country who believe in this. So, here's what I suggest. Take out your cell phone and program the direct phone numbers of the key Senators who will ultimately determine what kind of health care we get. This list should include everybody on Baucus' committee as well as your own state senators and perhaps a few others. Now, here's the good part. Call these fucker's repeatedly until we get what we want! If every body on DU does this it will be like a virtual massive DC demonstration right inside the Senate offices! (See, this is more effective than typing messages to each other because the Senators are not on DU reading our comments) Pass this idea along - make it viral! Let's use the technology to drive real change! Call every day!.

The Cell Phone Revolution! Push the button Spock!

Where the hell are the anti-Nader posts I expected to see?

Surely Nader must be against us because he is a gop tool. Therefore single payer is bad?

Heads must be exploding.

:kick:

:eyes:

Go Ralph. We've missed you where it counts.

Statement of Dr. Marcia Angell introducing the U.S. National Health Insurance Act

http://www.pnhp.org/facts/statement_of_dr_marcia_angell_introducing_the_us_national_health_insurance_act.php

February 4, 2003
Washington D.C.

"We are here today to introduce a national health insurance program. Such a program is no longer optional; it’s necessary.

Americans have the most expensive health care system in the world..."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcia_Angell

and this question came up. He said he hoped Congress would allow single payer reps to come to the table.

But he isn't the Speaker, so who knows what he can do. LOL

Here is where Nader will bring people together.
Keep up the good work, Ralph Nader!!!

I thank him for my seat belt regularly.
Ralph has always cared about people and not corporations.

Nader never stopped being relevant. If more people would listen to Nader, this country would be a lot better off.

I happen to agree with you, but sitting around talking about how much it sucks that corporations have more representation and organization than the American People accomplishes exactly Zero. You have money, you have connections, you have at least some degree of political clout--start an organization to represent the American People. Hire lobbyists and deeply fund grassroots campaigns. Put your money where your mouth is. Otherwise, you're more like Them than you are like Us.

:thumbsup:

We, the People, remember?

Nader's money, political connections, or influence. I'm a poor person living in a trailer park. Ralph's wealthy. He actually has the potential to make a difference.

We can wait and wait, or we can find a way to insert ourselves into the political process.

I actually believe YOU have potential.

Now he's attempting another one. (The most recent one was his presidential campaign, which DUers wrote off as "egotistical.") Every single campaign stop he made in 2008 was short on Hope and Change, and very heavy on detailed policy positions. But I guess he didn't have enough catchy phrases to get people to pay attention.

If you'd put down the knee-jerk "Fuck Nader" position, you might actually hear what he's trying to say and do.

* Citizen Advocacy Center
* Citizens Utility Boards
* Congress Accountability Project
* Consumer Task Force For Automotive Issues
* Corporate Accountability Research Project
* Disability Rights Center
* Equal Justice Foundation
* Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights
* Georgia Legal Watch
* National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform
* National Coalition for Universities in the Public Interest
* Pension Rights Center
* PROD (truck safety)
* Retired Professionals Action Group
* The Shafeek Nader Trust for the Community Interest
* 1969: Center for the Study of Responsive Law
* 1970s: Public Interest Research Groups
* 1970: Center for Auto Safety
* 1970: Connecticut Citizen Action Group
* 1971: Aviation Consumer Action Project
* 1972: Clean Water Action Project
* 1972: Center for Women's Policy Studies
* 1973: Capitol Hill News Service
* 1980: Multinational Monitor (magazine covering multinational corporations)
* 1982: Trial Lawyers for Public Justice
* 1982: Essential Information (encourage citizen activism and do investigative journalism)
* 1983: Telecommunications Research and Action Center
* 1983: National Coalition for Universities in the Public Interest
* 1988: Taxpayer Assets Project
* 1989: Princeton Project 55 (alumni public service)
* 1993: Appleseed Foundation (local change)
* 1994: Resource Consumption Alliance (conserve trees)
* 1995: Center for Insurance Research
* 1995: Consumer Project on Technology
* 1997?: Government Purchasing Project (encourage purchase of safe products)
* 1998: Center for Justice and Democracy
* 1998: Organization for Competitive Markets
* 1998: American Antitrust Institute (ensure fair competition)
* 1999?: Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest
* 1999?: Commercial Alert (protect family, community, and democracy from corporations)
* 2000: Congressional Accountability Project (fight corruption in Congress)
* 2001: Citizen Works (promote NGO cooperation, build grassroots support, and start new groups)
* 2001: Democracy Rising (hold rallies to educate and empower citizens)

Please enlighten us as to what else he should do. And, while you're at it, post the list of organizations YOU'VE started. I'm sure, with your superior knowledge and greatness, your list must certainly top his.

:kick:

Recommend and kick.

He's a traitor to liberals and to America, and without him this would probably have been done five years ago.

The right wing corporatists hate Ralph Nader -- just as they hate anyone who is a threat to corportatism. And a lot of suckers on DU have fallen for it.

And they are turning the Volume up with straw men, rehashed talking points, and data that isn't worth a pinch of shit. They are here to raise trouble, obscure any coherant message by polluting threads with irrelevant nonsense.

Many of the people on DU don't have the skill to sift through the amount of crap these trolls load up the boards with, which is why good moderators are a must.

The Democrats that lick the boots of Corporate interests are not Democrats in my book, and that goes for GMO, Big Pharma, Insurance, etc. Unfortunately, the Corporations have had such a long and comfy relationship with the Government, they have given themselves more rights than an individual, while diminishing any responsibilty to a laughably small liability. It's not just GMO, Military Contractors, Banks and Insurance, but it's everywhere. The System in place has been corrupted to the point where it is no longer acceptible, and people know it.

The cheerleaders here have no other recourse than to love their membership in some corporation.. It's the only family they have. It's a failed family system, and out of touch with Humanity, which explains their lack of empathy for fellow man, animal or planet. They have no connection to the earth, and are therefore functioning without purpose, ready to be programmed to do what their authority figure tells them.

He's a multi-millionaire who got rich off corporate stock, and despite claims otherwise, has fought to protect corporate privacy on Capitol Hill. He busts up unions in his own corporations. And the first thing he did after the 2000 election was write an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal praising Bush's economic plans.

Don't tell me who's fallen for crap. If you believe that fraud, you don't know a damn thing about him.

your ignorance is showing. but thank you for revealing yourself.
better merely to be thought ignorant than to remove all doubt by posting inane, uninformed "opinions."

:shrug:

Maybe you should do a bit of research on how Nader made his millions, or how he treats people who try to form unions in his businesses. He's a fraud, out to make a buck and stroke his own ego. I was a fan and supporter at one time, but I've watched him change. He's no friend of us. He sees our causes as opportunities to make a buck for himself or to give his ego a stroking.

The comparison is fallacious. And you know it. :thumbsdown:

Along with everyone else who favors corporations over the best interests of the American people.

Funny thing, though... he still loves bashing Dems and never the GOP. And has he said anything about HR676 prior to this article? I honestly don't know.

k/r

:evilfrown: :spray:

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: Ralph get's it!!!!!!

The wrong messenger.

If Nader ever stopped grand standing and actually spent half the time he he spent destroying the democratic Party instead working for just causes like this he would have more clout.

Alas.

You can call it hate if you want.

I call it ashame.

Affordable care won't do much good until we demand a higher quality of care. In Tennessee and Virginia, Profit Care comes ahead of Patient Care.

http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=62

Besides, the more people who speak this important message, the better.

At least that is what I am told.

Why do you think Nader owes them anything?

His little run for oblivion might have been the difference.

He is no Liberal.

used by Joseph Leiberman and other conservatives who wanted to take the heat off the Supreme Court and Bush for stealing the 2000 election.

Leiberman did far more than Ralph Nader to drive registered Democrats into the arms of Bush/Cheney.

Leiberman's no liberal.

250,000 registered Florida Democrats voted for Bush in 2000! Ralph did that? I don't think so.

And now you want us to believe that prominent single payer advocates like Ralph Nader are part of a right-wing Republican conspiracy?

Yikes!

Earth calling poster .... come back down to earth!

Without King Ralphie the Supreme Court never hears the case.

That is just fact.

Watch the movie "Recount" and see how Leiberman stabbed Albert Gore in the back during the recount.

let Obama and Congress know we will not accept anything less. When Bill and Hillary tried to change health care, the PUGs were very much in charge. This year is the opposite. If Obama and the dems will get behind it solidly, we can have single payer. Obama is not behind it at all, so we must let him know that anything else is unacceptable and once again in large numbers!!!!!

Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461

Yeah, Obama and Kennedy fear the insurance companies and are selling out because of campaign contributions.

Nader is an asshole.

for some, it's "all about Nader" when Nader speaks, 24/7, no matter what he says.

nobody ever has the right to run for public office except those with a D or R after their name and the support of lobbyists, billionaires, corporate PACs, media shills, and entrenched, greedhead politicians, RIGHT? How DARE Nader try to run as a representative of We The People???

and how DARE We The People actually vote for the man? how DARE we not fall into line like obedient sheep and buy the corporate scam without question?

Obama certainly is. Pelosi for sure. The people want not for profit health care, these public servants who have forgotten their place want to sell us policies. Salesmen always take a cut in the real world.
Do you think they are abandoning the clear will of the people out of principle or what? I certainly agree with Ralph that the current batch uses the word 'pragmatic' to describe whatever it is that they are promoting at the time. No reason is shown, just a declaration of pragmatisim. These public servants are claiming to know the future, what can and can not be...yet they are the same servants who failed to see the financial meltdown coming until it was obvious to the world. Tell me how they suddenly gained the ability to see the future, to know what is possible without even making any attempts at doing the right thing.
Follow the freaking money, as always.

with most politicians atleast...


it takes money to stay in office, in case you werent aware.

an enemy of progress

It is to be done.

Politicians will not go against the powerful interest of the medical industrial complex
without the people, Thats you and I, Giving them a back bone.

Letters,phone calls,e-mails,faxes,Etc are fine, But none of these will make a hairs diameters
worth of difference when all is said and done.

This IS one of those moments in history, Don't be lulled into sitting on the sidelines :popcorn:

we are gonna need all the help we can get on this one im afraid.

the corporate masters are in a tizzy.

Sounds like it's time for the American people to be seen, heard and represented in DC. What time is the revolution?

Too bad he destroyed his own good name by sacrificing the Dems and admitting he was doing precisely that. I try to ignore him. If I'm going to listen to someone discuss single payer, I certainly don't listen to him. He double crossed me, my party and my country. I have no reason to listen to him when there are other people discussing the same thing who didn't doublecross me, my party and my country.

I also doubt Pelosi is too worried about them if 3/4 of her district wants single payer. What would she need with the drug/insurance money? And Obama would be a statesman on the order of Roosevelt and Johnson (of Social Security, Medicare and Civil Rights stature) if he came to bat for what would prove a monumental success. So it is the others who are stopping the legislation, the ones who did and do need the contributions. Now it up to the Kennedys, Clintons, Obamas and Pelosis to stand tall for us instead of folding to the others (like Baucus)just because it's easier to do so.

I'm all for single payer. I think it's the way we need to go. We need to take the profit motive out of paying for health care. Insurance companies are nothing but middle men that add cost.

But I can't help but wonder what will be come of all the insurance company workers out there? My Mom used to work in insurance many years ago as a secretary. I'd bet there are hundreds of thousands of middle to lower class folks working in the insurance industry, processing paperwork, doing data entry, etc. What becomes of all of these jobs?

I think any single player plan needs to also have something in it to help all of these workers transition. Obviously I'm not talking about the guys with golden parachutes.

If they want a profitable job denying sick people coverage, I really don't see a place for that in an honest economy.

Obviously the displaced workers would need to find income/employment in another field. Perhaps single payer will grow our economy sufficiently enough to allow for jobs to be added to the economy overall..

If they want a profitable job denying sick people coverage, I really don't see a place for that in an honest economy.

I don't think most of the people who work for insurance companies want such a job, they just want a job. My mother used to work in insurance as a secretary. She didn't make squat. I'd bet most people working there are in low-paying jobs processing paperwork and doing data entry. These aren't the kind of people I want to bring down when we take down insurance companies. We're probably talking about hundreds of thousands of employees.

the same employment in another field. Data entry - another field. Or they could do this for health care providers.

I guess I feel this way - their current employers don't make a product (for profit health care) that Americans want to buy or support.
So, they can either keep working for the for-profit-system until it is gone. Or they can find the same work in a field that people want their services (like at a health care clinic or hospital or something).

I could make much more money right now working for a health insurance company then I can as a direct care worker. I'd rather help people.

I mean, imagine being the secretary that has to mail out all those pre-emptive denials of coverage.. or handling the phone calls of sick people in need, begging for help, only to transfer the call to a voice mail account that will be deleted at the end of the day. Sounds like good paying hell to me.

Peace and low stress bro. Didn't mean to bum ya out.

I agree with you that these people can, and will, one way or another, find other employment.

I just think that when we shutter the insurance companies in favor of a national insurance program those displaced workers ought to be given shots at jobs in the new national program or assistance in finding other work.

I don't want to shut those workers out in the cold.

peace and God Bless..

:hi:

I'm probably going to sound calloused, but I'm going to say it anyway. I can't count the times over my 3 decades i the work force that I've had a job fold up in my face, company bankrupt, laid off, whatever. I've walked out with my last week's pay and had to start over, and if I ever dared "whine" about it, the answer always came back "well son, I guess you better get out there and find something else to do."

Currently, the health insurance industry is collecting $16,900 a year because I walk into this job and clock in every morning. Over $5k of that comes directly out of my paycheck and I earn the rest. And we still have 80/20 coverage and a $500 annual deductable per person for hospital stays,lab work etc.

I'm sorry, but if we can get single payer the people in the health insurance industry can go find something else to do for a living juat like I've had to do in the past. It's tough and I'd definetly want the govt to help them, but I'm sorry, supporting theirm bloated industry is breaking my back and I can't afford it anymore. I'm sure there are millions more just like me out there.

but if St. Ralph is spewing shit about it, maybe it's time to rethink my position on healthcare.