Senator Bernie Sanders will host a single payer summit next week in Washington, D.C. According to a poster announcing the event, the summit “will include discussion on how we can transition to a health care system offering universal access and next steps for single payer advocacy.”

Joining Sanders at the summit will be Public Citizen President Robert Weissman, University of Massachusetts economist Gerald Friedman, Dr. Margaret Flowers of PopularResistance.org,. Dr. Andrew Coates, president of Physicians for a National Health Program, and Michael Lighty, Director of Public Policy at National Nurses United.

Last December, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) introduced a single payer bill (S. 1782). Five months later, it still has no co-sponsors. Not Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), not Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts).

Sanders speculated last month that Senators don’t like signing on to bills that they think don’t have a chance at passage. Or it could be that Democratic Senators don’t want to criticize Obamacare in an election year.

Of the panelists, Flowers is the most vocal critic of Obamacare, calling it “a scam” and saying she would refuse to buy health insurance, as required by Obamacare, as an act of civil disobedience.

“I am required to buy private insurance or pay a penalty,” Flowers wrote recently in an article titled ACA’s a Scam, We Need Medicare for All. “But I find myself in the position of not being able to do either. I can’t in good conscience give money to the health insurance industry that I am fighting to eliminate. And I can’t in good conscience pay a tax penalty that will be given to that industry. So, I am going to be a Conscientious Objector to the Affordable Care Act.”

The summit will be held May 21 10 am at 430 Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.

The event will also be streamed at sanders.senate.gov.