Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) was reluctant to introduce a single payer bill in the Senate.

He knew that of the 100 Senators, he would be alone.

The handful of other Senators who might favor a single payer approach didn’t want to chance offending Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) who, along with Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana), are leading the charge for President Obama in the Senate – and together have kicked single payer off the table.

But last month, single payer advocates, including Dr. David Himmelstein of Physicians for a National Health Program, met with Senator Sanders and convinced him to do it.

“We told him that in order to do effective organizing, we needed him to introduce single payer legislation in the Senate,” Himmelstein said.

And so last week, Sanders introduced the single payer legislation (S. 703).

The Sanders bill differs from the Conyers bill in the House (HR 676) in two fundamental ways.

The Conyers’ bill would create a single payer that would be administered at the federal level.

The Sanders bill mirrors legislation introduced by the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) in 1993, S. 491, and closely parallels similar legislation pending before the House, H.R. 1200, introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.)

It would create a single payer that would be administered by the individual states.

The Conyers bill has 72 co-sponsors. The McDermott bill has 7 co-sponsors. Sanders has no co-sponsors.

Himmelstein said that the Sanders approach “might well be best for states with competent and relatively uncorrupt state governments.”

“It would probably be a weaker approach in states with lesser expertise and honesty,” Himmelstein said.

The state approach is closer to the Canadian single payer system, where the provinces administer the program.

The other way that the Sanders bill differs from the Conyers bill is that it doesn’t provide for mental health parity.

But Himmelstein said that Sanders will correct this.

Himmelstein was at the White House last Wednesday, along with 34 other health professionals, meeting with Obama’s health team, led by Ezekiel Emanuel, Dora Hughes and Nancy-Ann DeParle.

“We each got five minutes to speak,” Himmelstein said.

Himmelstein said he was the only person in the group to speak explicitly for single payer.

But Himmelstein said there is a tremendous amount of organizing around the country.

“At all of the health summits, single payer people are there,” Himmelstein said. “In Vermont, a couple hundred single payer people were outside. They had to let them in. In Michigan, there were demonstrators for single payer. They got invited in. There were single payer people in Iowa. There will be hundreds in California and North Carolina. If you look at the people who care about health care reform, and aren’t being paid to do the work, they are for single payer. There are lots of people in suits who are being paid – and they are for something other than single payer.”