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Near the end of the 08/06/09 “Think Out Loud” conversation about outrageous behavior by medical care insurance companies, I was taken aback to hear the assertion made – unchallenged – that no proposal for excluding insurance companies from the medical arena was being considered. That is patently false. 07/31/09, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised that the full House of Representatives will debate and vote on the national single-payer plan of payment for medical care: HR 676. (See YouTube “Waxman to Weiner: Pelosi Will Allow Single-Payer Full House Vote!” and YouTube “Weiner Pushes for Single Payer Plan”.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0fA2DfwFn4&feature=related and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOqE4dzsDgk

Single-payer is clearly on the table.

Indeed, at his 07/22/09 news conference, President Barack Obama said this: “I want to cover everybody. Now, the truth is that unless you have a what's called a single-payer system, in which everybody's automatically covered, then you're probably not going to reach every single individual.” http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/News-Conference-by-the-President-July-22-2009/

He’s quite right. He knows it, our Senators and Representatives know it, and we know it. A majority of Americans, and of American physicians in clinical practice, favors a national single-payer system of payment for medical care. The AFL-CIO of Oregon favors single-payer, as do more than 20 other union organizations in Oregon; such other occupational groups as the Oregon Nurses Association, the Oregon Academy of Family Practice, the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, the Oregon Education Association, and the Oregon affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers; and the County Commissions of Lane County and Multnomah County.

(Detailed documentation is available on request.)

posted 3 years, 10 months ago
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