Statement of Russell Mokhiber
President, Single Payer Action
National Press Club Murrow Room
Wednesday November 25, 2009, 10 a.m.

Good morning.

My name is Russell Mokhiber.

I’m the president of Single Payer Action.

Single Payer Action is a non-profit 501c.4 organization.

Our mission is a simple one:

– secure single payer Medicare for all national health insurance for the American people.

We are less than a year old.

And already, more than 100,000 ordinary Americans have signed up and donated at singlepayeraction.org.

Thank you all very much.

With your help, we will secure single payer – Medicare for all – national health insurance for the American people.

With me today are:

Dr. Margaret Flowers – Congressional fellow, Physicians for a National Health Program.

Mikuak Rai – Coalition of the Uninsured and Underinsured for Single Payer.

Dr. Carol Paris – a practicing physician from Steny Hoyer’s district in Maryland – and a member of Physicians for a National Health Program.

And Kevin Zeese – executive director of ProsperityAgenda.us, which was an initiating organization for the Mobilization for Health Care for All.

We are here today – the day before Thanksgiving – to say in unison:

The bloated Democratic health bill is a turkey.

We need to start from scratch.

And pass single payer health insurance for the American people.

We will each make brief statements, and then take your questions.

I’m speaking today for myself and on behalf of Single Payer Action.

And others will be speaking for their organizations.

Six months ago – on May 5, 2009 – Margaret, Carol, Kevin and I were up on Capitol Hill.

We were in the Senate Finance Committee hearing room.

It was the beginning of three days of hearings to kick off the health care debate in Congress.

The room was packed with industry lobbyists of all stripes – health insurance, pharmaceutical, medical device, the AMA – you name it, they were there.

Senator Max Baucus, the chair of the committee, had scheduled three days of hearings on health care reform.

Baucus had asked 41 health care experts to testify.

Not one was an advocate for single payer national health insurance.

Single payer is a simple clear reform.

The house single payer bill – HR 676 – is only 30 pages long.

Baucus, Obama and the Democrats had taken it off the table.

And replaced it with a 2,000 page monstrosity.

Single payer is simple.

And it works.

Under a single payer system, the day you are born, you get a medical card with your name on it.

With this card, you get free choice of doctor and hospital.

Anywhere in the United States.

You pay no health care premiums to private health insurance corporations.

You receive no bills.

Instead of the premiums we are paying now, we would pay that amount or less into one public insurance pool.

Everybody in.

Nobody out.

Single payer saves lives.

Right now, 45,000 Americans die every year from lack of health insurance.

Under a single payer system, zero Americans would die every year from lack of health insurance.

Why?

Because everybody would be covered.

Single payer covers everyone.

Single payer also saves money.

We would replace the hundreds of private health insurance payers with one single public payer.

In one stroke, we would save $400 billion a year in administrative waste, profits and overhead.

We would then use those savings to insure everyone.

This single payer would then use its tremendous buying power to drive down drug and other medical costs.

Dr. Marcia Angell is the former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Angell told us earlier this year that single payer is not only the best health care reform.

It’s the only health care reform that both controls costs and covers everyone.

Every industrialized country in the world has some form of national health insurance.

Where health care is a human right.

Where selling basic health insurance for profit is against the law.

Every industrialized country has that system.

Except the United States.

We want to change that.

And we will change that.

National polls show that the majority of doctors and the majority of Americans favor a single payer system.

That’s why six months ago, we went to Capitol Hill.

When Senator Baucus opened that first day of hearings in May – I stood up and said – excuse me Senator.

Why have you taken single payer off the table?

Why have you not allowed one doctor testify for single payer?

Instead of hearing us out, Senator Baucus ordered us arrested.

One by one – Margaret, Kevin, Carol – and four others – stood up and confronted Baucus.

And one by one we were arrested.

And charged with disruption of Congress.

In a plea deal earlier this year, we agreed not to “disrupt Congress” through the end of this year.

Since that day in May, Baucus and Harry Reid in the Senate, and Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer in the House have cobbled together incomprehensible legislation.

It is convoluted.

And it is confusing.

But one thing is clear.

President Obama and the Democrats have cut a dirty deal with the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

Obama took single payer off the table.

And in exchange, the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries supported his drive for “reform.”

That’s why Harry and Louise – once again paid for by big Pharma – are now back on the air – this time arguing for passage of the Democrat’s health care legislation.

There are 88 members of the House who say they support single payer.

Yet, Congressmen Dennis Kucinich and Eric Massa were the only single payer supporters in the House who courageously stood up and voted earlier this month against President Obama and against Nancy Pelosi and against Steny Hoyer and the Democratic leadership.

Kucinich called the Democratic bill “a bailout under a Blue Cross.”

Massa said the bill would “enshrine in law the monopolistic powers of the private health insurance industry.”

Single Payer Action today is calling on the 88 single payer supporters in the House – and those in the Senate – including Senator Bernie Sanders and Tom Harkin – to stop hiding.

Come out, come out wherever you are.

And join with Congressmen Kucinich and Massa and defeat Obama’s health care monstrosity.

Start from scratch.

And pass single payer.

On July 30, 54 single payer supporters in the House signed a letter saying that anything less than a public option tied to Medicare rates was “unacceptable.”

A few months later, they backed down and accepted a even punier public option not tied to Medicare rates – a public option that will cover only six million Americans.

The hyper puny public option in the Senate bill will cover only four million Americans.

And much of the puny relief the Democratic bills provide won’t kick in until 2013.

Many people who need coverage now will be dead by then.

Who will stand with Kucinich and Massa and against Obama’s health care monstrosity?

Earlier this month, Congressman Xavier Becerra was critical of Nancy Pelosi for giving up too easily on the robust public option.

According to a report in Politico, Pelosi said “I understand I have tire tracks on my back because Xavier threw me under the bus.”

No Madame Speaker.

It’s the other way around.

By taking single payer off the table, you threw the American people under the bus.

What about Congressman John Conyers?

Will John Conyers, the lead sponsor of HR 676, stand with Kucinich and Massa?

Last week, Conyers said he was tired of the Rahm Emanuel’s approach of “give us anything and we will declare victory.”

Conyers said that he feared that President Obama would “just sign anything.”

But the question is – will John Conyers just agree to vote for anything?

He did earlier this month.

When will he break from Obama?

Congresswoman Donna Edwards is another so-called “progressive” for single payer.

She too took single payer off the table.

She too said in July that anything less than a public option tied to Medicare rates was “unacceptable.”

She too then reneged on that promise and accepted the puny public option.

Then just last week, guess what?

Steny Hoyer hosts a fundraiser for Donna Edwards.

At Johnny’s Half Shell on Capitol Hill.

Host: $5,000.

PAC: $2,500.

Individual: $1,000.

Congressman Raul Grijalva – the head of the so-called Progressive Caucus in Congress – started out supporting single payer.

Now he’s in favor of the puny public option.

He says he’ll “strongly consider” voting against the puny public option if it’s watered down to triggers.

This is what the Democrats are good at: capitulation.

Capitulate, capitulate, capitulate.

Let’s look at the other side for a bit of guidance.

Joe Lieberman – the Senator from Aetna – will shut down the Senate at the drop of a hat for the health insurance companies.

Who will be our Joe Lieberman?

Who will shut down the Senate for the American people?

Once again, the people are ahead of the politicians.

As the debate reaches its endgame, single payer forces all over the country are quickly moving against the Democratic legislation.

Earlier this month, Healthcare-Now! – a coalition of labor unions and other single payer activists – adopted a resolution at its national strategy conference in St. Louis – calling on Congress to defeat the Democratic legislation.

Dr. Marcia Angell earlier this month called on Congress to do nothing instead of passing the Democratic bill.

“Is the House bill better than nothing?” she asked.

“I don’t think so,” she answered.

“It simply throws more money into a dysfunctional and unsustainable system, with only a few improvements at the edges, and it augments the central role of the investor-owned insurance industry. The danger is that as costs continue to rise and coverage becomes less comprehensive, people will conclude that we’ve tried health reform and it didn’t work. But the real problem will be that we didn’t really try it. I would rather see us do nothing now, and have a better chance of trying again later and then doing it right.”

Last week, Robert Reich, Clinton’s former Secretary of Labor, said that under the bills pending in Congress – the cup is 90 percent empty.

“Most of us will remain stuck with little or no choice – dependent on private insurers who care only about the bottom line, who deny our claims, who charge us more and more for co-payments and deductibles, who bury us in forms, who don’t take our calls.”

Reich said:

“I want every Senator who’s not in the pocket of the private insurers or Big Pharma to introduce and vote for a “Ted Kennedy Medicare for All” amendment to whatever bill Reid takes to the floor.”

We only need a courageous few in the House and a courageous few in the Senate to tank this turkey.

Call your member of Congress and your Senator now.

The switchboard phone number for Congress is 202.224.3121.

202.224.3121.

Tell them the Democratic bill is a bailout of the health insurance industry.

Tell them to join with Congressmen Massa and Kucinich.

Vote against the 2,000 page Obama bill.

Start from scratch.

Pass a simple 30 page bill instead.

HR 676.

Health care is a human right.

Everybody in.

Nobody out.

Join with us in this historic movement to defeat the Democratic bill.

Start from scratch.

And pass single payer.

Sign up and donate at singlepayeraction.org.

Onward to single payer.