Federal legislators are considering eliminating the antitrust exemption for health insurance companies; this may be one of the few bright spots among faltering federal health reform legislation, so please contact your representative immediately. (DeFazio is taking the lead in Oregon).
Some senators are also trying to resuscitate the public option by using the reconciliation process, which only requires 51 votes; Sen. Merkley has signed on to the letter asking Harry Reid to do this. Sen. Wyden has not. Let him know what you think.
What is Single Payer?
It is a publicly financed, universal health care system, sometimes called National Health Insurance.
Some single payer systems (such as that in Great Britain and, though we don’t often think about this, the U.S. Veterans Administration) also employ the doctors and fund the hospitals. But most single payer advocates in the U.S. want a system that will simply pay the bills from a single source and cover everyone. Doctors and hospitals will remain in the private sector, and will send their bills to the single payer.
All your questions about single payer answered here by Physicians for a National Health Program
Is health care a right or a privilege? What do you think? Is it OK that 18,000 people die each year in the U.S. because they don’t have access to care?