Sanders to push for single-payer vote

[joeycola]

http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=3a0655c4-cdd0-494a-aebd-23a177ba554f

Sanders to push for single-payer vote

Source: Barre-Montpelier Times Argus

By By Daniel Barlow, Vermont Press Bureau

October 29, 2009

MONTPELIER — U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders will likely make history this year when — for the first time ever — he brings a bill creating a national single-payer health care system to the floor of the Senate for a vote.

As a compromise on a public-option plan that would allow states to opt out gains steam in the U.S. Senate, Sanders, a Vermont independent, continues to focus his attention on a single-payer bill, although he acknowledges that there are not enough votes to pass it.

"That bill will lose," Sanders said Wednesday morning during a telephone interview. "The question, however, will be how much support it will get."

Introduced in the early spring, Sanders' American Health Security Act of 2009 would eliminate the role of private insurance companies in health care and create a public fund that would insure all residents of the United States.

Sanders said his bill would insure the 46 million Americans without coverage and could save upwards of $400 million annually by eliminating insurance overhead and medical bureaucracy.

The system would be paid for through existing sources of government health care spending along with some tax increases, which advocates say would be less than what people pay now in co-pays or out-of-pocket expenses.

Sanders' bill has received little attention in Washington political circles as this summer's health-care debate focused more on discredited fears of government death panels and the cost of a public health insurance option, which President Obama favors.

There has never been a vote on a single-payer health care system in either the U.S. Senate or the House, according to Mark Almberg, communications director for the organization Physicians for a National Health Program, a national advocacy organization that supports a single-payer system.
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Knowing that his single-payer bill is likely to fail, Sanders said he also plans to try including a provision in the final health-care bill that would allow states such as Vermont to experiment with a single-payer system on a state level.

If that legislation is approved, it would be welcomed by some lawmakers in Vermont. Sen. Doug Racine, D-Chittenden, a candidate for governor in 2010, said he plans to kick off hearings at the Statehouse in January on exactly what a single-payer system in the Green Mountain State would look like.........................


contact:


http://sanders.senate.gov/contact/:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :toast: :toast:

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Good for him.

[midnight]

2. K&R!!

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

3. He's a very smart man.

Because frankly, he knows that once this goes to a vote, it'll put to bed the notion that single payer was ever anywhere near feasible in the first place, and then perhaps we progressives can move together towards something that will pass. I doubt he expects it to get even 30 votes, which is the whole point. Sanders is a realist.

[Oregone]

6. Well thats one way to frame it

You really think he is a smart man to do this because he thinks its utter failure will convince progressives to support mediocre reform? Maybe he is doing it because he believes in it.

His attempt failing big would only convince me to say fuck it and move to a sane country. If there is no hope for real health reform, whats the point?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

7. Firstly, every one from Howard Dean to Krugman thinks this IS real reform.

Secondly, Sanders has always been a pragmatist. He DOES believe in it, but he also believes that something needs to happen. His leadership on this could move many rational progressives back to where they belong - in favor of the bill.

But if you want to cut and run, be my guest. Good luck with finding a country that will take you legally that has "real health care."

[Oregone]

8. I guess "real reform" is relative and depends on how desperate you are.

About moving, I was more talking about other people by imagining myself in that situation. I already found a sane country with "real health care". Best thing I ever did.

[wroberts189]

4. knr

[bigwillq]

5. Good.

:thumbsup:

[Festivito]

9. How about a national vote? Until then, go Bernie go!

He's a treasure.