Single payer lives
Nick Unger has been telling single-payer advocates to "take a step back" for a very, very long time. One is tempted to ask "what makes this news?" Will Mr. Unger really be kept from savoring the "tremendous victory" he finds in Congress by an ongoing cry of "Single Payer Now"?
Is this need to "hold court" perhaps a sign of advance for the single payer cause? Or simply an expedient effort to neutralize potential single payer opposition to "reform" largely written by the insurance industry itself, but championed by the Democratic Party? Perhaps a bit of both?
Dr. Marcia Angell has written that the no bill is better than the House bill. Dr. Steffie Woolhandler has said that it is time for Congress to "start from scratch." Single Payer New York and Healthcare-Now have come out against the bills in Congress. Many single-payer advocates in New York and across the country have rallied to defend Rep. Eric Massa's "No" vote on the House bill.
But what happened to HR 676 is the big story of the year. Single payer not only won endorsement on the floor of the AFL-CIO convention but also forced itself into the Congressional process. All the way up to the day before the big house vote the Democratic Party leadership found itself spinning excuses to prevent any debate or any vote on single payer on the floor of the House. That day the AFL-CIO and eight unions put an ad in "Roll Call" urging a yes vote on a substitute single payer amendment.
These developments reflect the independence and the potential of the still-growing single-payer movement. They prove the popularity of single payer among the American people (contrary to Unger's assertions.) It is significant too that grassroots vigor will not be dampened by the tired old refrain (that Unger officiously reiterates) that since single payer is not politically feasible it is time to step back and abandon the cause.
Local organizing, popular protest, picket lines, sit-ins including civil disobedience and individual lobbying of Congresspeople carried these advances along - 99% of it spontaneous, unfunded and unpaid volunteer work.
Single payer lives.