SF health reform activists picket Senator Baucus & say: "Stop banning single payer"!

Protest Senator Baucus in SF today for his ban on discussion of single payer health reform in the U.S. Senate.
MAX BAUCUS, LEADING US SENATOR ON HEALTH REFORM, TO BE PICKETED BY "SINGLE PAYER" SUPPORTERS DURING HIS SF VISIT TODAY
San Francisco health reform activists tell Max Baucus to put single payer health care "on the table"; support HR 676, the US National Healthcare Act and S 703, the American Health Security Act

Today, on May 26, 2009, 6 pm, at 2436 Jackson Street in San Francisco, "single payer" health reform activists are gearing up to picket US Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who is in San Francisco to be the featured speaker at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee meeting (DSCC describes itself as: "...the largest organization solely dedicated to electing a Democratic Senate in the country...".) Single payer supporters are focusing their attention on Senator Baucus, because when he chaired recent Senate Finance Committee hearings, health reform activists demanded that he include a proponent of single payer in the hearings, and when they disrupted the hearings when he failed to do so, he had them arrested. (Single payer health reform would provide health care to everyone and eliminate the health insurance industry. HR 676 is the single payer bill in the U.S. House and S 703 is the single payer bill in the U.S. Senate. So far, Senator Baucus has had 13 doctors and nurses arrested for trying to bring up a discussion of single payer. The chief lobbyist for the private insurance industry and trade organizations that oppose fundamental reform were allowed to testify, but no person advocating single payer was invited to speak.

Senator Baucus has said that single payer is "off the table". Single payer supporters suggest that the public "connect the dots" between Baucus' opposition to health reform which eliminates the health insurance industry, and the campaign contributions Baucus gets from the health insurance and pharmaceutical corporations, which are more than what any other Democrat in Congress receives. He got $183,750 from health insurance companies and $229,020 from drug companies in the last two election cycles.
The single payer bill in Congress, HR 676, sometimes called "Medicare For All", is sponsored by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and would would create a publicly financed health care system that would provide health care to everyone in our country as well as eliminate the health insurance industry.

Don Bechler, chair of Single Payer Now says: "The question for Senator Baucus is: 'Why is he banning discussion of single payer legislations?' When Senator Baucus says single payer is 'off the table' and won't let any single payer supporters testify in Congress when all of those with a financial interest in the health care system are allowed to testify, that is a travesty in terms of free speech, governance, and health care; and it flies in the face of the best interests of the majority. I would urge people who care about this issue to join us Tuesday in San Francisco to picket Senator Baucus and send him a message that we want single payer health reform. And if you can't join us on Tuesday, please call or fax Senator Baucus, and tell him to put single payer 'on the table'. His phone number is: (202) 224-2651(Office); and his fax number is: (202) 224-9412."

Single Payer Now is a statewide grassroots advocacy group based in San Francisco. It educates and trains activists to advocate for healthcare minus the insurance industry. In California, it works toward the enactment into law SB 810, the California Universal Healthcare Act; companion bills HR 676 and S 703, respectively, the U.S. National Healthcare Act and the American Health Security Act.

For more info, contact SPN chair Don Bechler at (415) 810-5826 or dbechler [at] value.net or log on tohttp://www.singlepayernow.net.

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*CBS News/New York Times Poll. April 22-26, 2009, http://www.pollingreport.com/health.htm and
*Associated Press-Yahoo Poll, December 14 - 20, 2007, http://www.pnhp.org/news/2007/december/where_are_we_on_refo.php