Single Payer Advocates Ask Congress To Start Over On Healthcare Reform

Travis Martinez - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Single payer health insurance advocates are calling on Congress to scrap its healthcare reform bills, and start over using a single payer model.

Single Payer Action President Russell Mokhiber, Dr. Margaret Flowers and Dr. Carol Paris of Physicians for a National Health Program, opposed both the Senate and House's reform plans during a press conference on Wednesday.

“It’s unfair to call this health care reform. This is an insurance industry and pharmaceutical industry bailout,” said Mokhiber. Health care is a human right. Everybody in, nobody out. Join with us in this historic movement to defeat the Democratic bill.”

Flowers questioned how favorably Congress's bills would stack up against a single payer system.

“It’s designed to fail. If our goal for this country is to provide health care for every person in a way that is financially sustainable and have it be both universal and cost-efficient, this is not the way to do it,” she said.

The plan advocated for by the panelists would ensure that all Americans obtain health care coverage through one national insurance program. In 2005 Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) introduced H.R. 676, legislation that would have created a single payer system by using existing government revenues to insure people and increasing personal income tax on the top five percent of income earners - including a tax on stock and bond transactions.

Earlier this year, the four panelists from Wednesday's discussion were ordered out of the Senate Finance Committee hearings after the committee rejected a single payer amendment. Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) had all four arrested in the hearing room. They later pleaded not guilty and were ordered to refrain from protesting on Capitol Hill for one year.

Senate Finance Committee Prepares For Baucus Bill Vote

Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

As the Senate Finance Committee prepares to vote on the America's Healthy Future Act, Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) used his opening remarks to congratulate the committee's members on reaching this point and urge the commitee to help further the legislation.

“Now pretty much everything’s been said. Now it’s time to get the job done," said Baucus. "The scores are in, and I am proud to say that our bill passes the test."

Sen. Olympia Snow (R-Maine.), who has been viewed by Democrats as a possible Republican ally on the bill, used her opening statement to ask CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf to keep updated analyses of the bill as it proceeds to the Senate floor, stating that it is “critically important [for senators] to be vigilant.”

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) addressed the recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, describing it as “flawed and completely incorrect."

Baucus interrupted Sen. Orrin Hatch's (R-Utah) opening remarks, stating that the Republican Senator was taking too long and asking Hatch to be courteous to other senators by adhering to the time limit. Baucus tried to limit Sen. Jon Kyl's (R-Ariz.) opening statement as well, a move that visibly frustrated Kyl.

The landmark bill was confronted with 564 amendments, of which the committee considered 135. There were in total 79 roll-call votes. The committee adopted 41 amendments in total.

Tuesday marks the 8th day the committee has met to tackle the bill, making this the longest amount of time the committee has worked on a single piece of legislation in 22 years.