Senate Speech Heralds New Social Movement

Senate Speech Heralds New Social Movement

Andy Coates of Albany is a physician at a New York State hospital where he
is a member of the Professional Employees Federation (PEF), a joint
statewide AFT/SEIU affiliate.  Coates and Baltimore Pediatrician Margaret
Flowers have written the following article that appeared on Common Dreams.

Both are stalwarts in the single payer movement and members the National
Board of Physicians for a National Health Program.

The Bernie Sanders speech is at:
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/congress/?q=node/77531&id=9083042

Published on Sunday, December 20, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/20-0

Senate Speech Heralds New Social Movement
by Margaret Flowers and Andy Coates

This week the sincere effort of millions of people across the nation once
again proved effective in the face of determined opposition from the White
House and Congress, as single payer health reform reached another
milestone in its historic journey.
When the Senate initiated its debate on health insurance reform, Senator
Bernie Sanders offered a single-payer amendment, with co-sponsors Sherrod
Brown and Roland Burris. Initially Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
skipped over it, allowing other amendments to come to the floor instead.
But nationwide events on International Human Rights Day, the delivery of
paper "bodies" to the senate offices, non-violent civil disobedience
including nine arrests at Senator Schumer's office, and hundreds of
thousands of emails and phone calls and faxes to the Senate evidently
changed Reid's mind.
When Sanders introduced his amendment the Senator from Oklahoma, Dr.
Coburn, rose according to the rules of the Senate to insist that the bill
be read in full. It was estimated that reading the 767-page bill would
take days, stalling a galloping Senate process.
We wondered: Could this be an unexpected gift? If Senator Lieberman could
make an intransigent stand on behalf of the insurance companies, would
Sanders make a stand on behalf of the health of the people?
Reading the bill would prompt our movement to swing into action yet again.
We would invite the nation to tune in to C-SPAN to hear how a national
single payer health system would provide comprehensive high-quality health
care to all citizens. Yet Coburn's maneuver had its effect.
Reid demanded that Sanders withdraw the amendment, for the Senate
timetable leading up to Christmas could not be delayed. Besides insurance
reform, there was the pressing issue of funding the wars.
Within 3 hours Sanders agreed. In return he got 30 minutes on the Senate
floor.
Sanders' speech was riveting. He spoke the words that we have been waiting
to hear for so long. He spoke about the beauty and simplicity of Medicare
for All. He spoke about having the courage to stand up to the
medical-industrial complex which profits at the expense of human
suffering.
Most importantly, Sanders spoke about the national movement for single
payer being led by nurses, doctors, medical students, faith and labor
organizations and people across the land of all backgrounds and beliefs.
He declared that this strong movement is not going away and he announced
that we will succeed.
So we will remember December 16th, 2009 as a turning point in the struggle
for health care justice. Single payer started this year "off the table."
But the accumulating efforts of millions of people delivered it to the
floor of the United States Senate.
To win single-payer health reform it will take many more speeches on the
floor of Congress. And the only force that will propel Congress forward is
a great social movement. In 2009 we have seen that movement rising up -
and getting results.
Every day more people see that an effective and just health system is
already at hand: a single-payer national health program modeled on the
Medicare system. And every day that the White House and Congress delay
single-payer reform, people suffer needlessly and die preventable deaths.
Yet the Senate blunders on, with a colossal gift to the insurance
industry.
It is time for the health of human beings to prevail. It is time to end
the insurance cartel. Please join us as we continue forge the movement
that will win Medicare for All.
Onward to single payer.

Margaret Flowers is a pediatrician in Baltimore, co-chair of the Maryland
chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) and PNHP
Congressional Fellow.  Andy Coates is an internist in Albany, secretary of
the Capital District (NY) chapter of PNHP and co-chair of Single Payer New
York.

Distributed by:
All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care--HR 676
c/o Nurses Professional Organization (NPO)
1169 Eastern Parkway, Suite 2218
Louisville, KY 40217
(502) 636 1551
Email: nursenpo@aol.com
http://unionsforsinglepayerHR676.org
12/22/09