ACTION ALERT for ALL SINGLEPAYER SUPPORTERS

Today's print edition of The New York Times contains an excellent letter to the editor from Dr. Sam Metz, a member of Mad as Hell Doctors and our PNHP chapter in Oregon. Even more noteworthy is an invitation by the Times' editors to the paper's readers to respond to Dr. Metz's letter, with a pledge that a selection of such letters will be published in the paper's Sunday Review...

• please write the letter today if at all possible; if not, tomorrow

-Art Persyko

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Subject: Please write letter to New York Times in response to letter on single payer

Hi, everyone,

Today's print edition of The New York Times contains an excellent letter to the editor from Dr. Sam Metz, a member of Mad as Hell Doctors and our PNHP chapter in Oregon. Even more noteworthy is an invitation by the Times' editors to the paper's readers to respond to Dr. Metz's letter, with a pledge that a selection of such letters will be published in the paper's Sunday Review.

Because you've written letters to the editor or opinion piece in the past, please consider submitting a quick response to this invitation from the Times. It's an important opportunity. 

Here's how Laurie Wen, executive director of our New York Metro chapter, puts it (followed by the text of Dr. Metz's letter):

The New York Times is inviting an open dialogue on single payer! Spurred by a letter by our colleague, Sam Metz of Mad As Hell Doctors, it's actively soliciting responses to be published in the Sunday Review. This is a golden opportunity: we need to flood them with letters supporting single payer!

Reminders:

• please write the letter today if at all possible; if not, tomorrow
  
• word limit of 150
• refer to Metz's letter
  
• include your mailing address and phone numbers
• no attachments in email
• letters@nytimes.com or fax (212) 556-3622

Laurie made an offer to look over letters from activists in the NY Metro chapter; I'd be happy to do the same on a national level.

Please send it a quick letter if you can!

Best regards,
Mark Almberg
Communications Director
(312) 728-6006, cell: (312) 622-0996


The New York Times, Aug. 23, 2011

Letter

Invitation to a Dialogue: A National Health Plan

In "Will Health Care Reform Survive the Courts?" (State of Play, Sunday Review, Aug. 21), Philip M. Boffey states that "reforms would work far less well without an individual mandate" that requires citizens to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

I disagree. Health care reform could provide better care at less cost by replacing individual mandates with a single-payer national health care plan financed by taxes. Congress's power to mandate purchase of private products sold at a profit is disputable, but Congress's power to tax is not.

Other industrialized countries have national health plans providing care to more citizens at less cost with better outcomes than our system. And they don't use mandates that allow insurers to charge different prices for different people.

These health care systems have three common properties: public subsidies ensure that everyone has access to care regardless of health, wealth or employment; primary care is encouraged; and publicly accountable, transparent, not-for-profit agencies transfer funds from patient to provider.

There is no need to experiment with mandates. Convert our current health care system into a national health plan.

SAMUEL METZ
Portland, Ore., Aug. 21, 2011

The writer, an anesthesiologist, is a founding member of Mad as Hell Doctors, which advocates a single-payer system.

Editors' Note: We invite readers to respond to this letter for our Sunday Dialogue. We plan to publish responses and Dr. Metz's rejoinder in the Sunday Review. E-mail: letters@nytimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/opinion/invitation-to-a-dialogue-a-national-health-plan.html?_r=1