Oh no, no, no, no, no! This is really bad. The only saving grace for me personally is that I’ll be eligible for Medicare by the time this awful thing would be in place. As an individual subscriber in PA, I currently have some protection from the state insurance dept.- such as no age rating. After having been a subscriber to the same company for 40 years and having used a tiny amount of that coverage, to think I would suddenly lose all state-level protection and be thrown to the wolves is just to awful to consider. Do these people understand what they’re doing? If they do, they simply have no conscience. The public will not be happy when they see the results of this travesty. And all in the name of not being disruptive to the insurance industry! Sickening!

Damn;it does sound bad enough to reject althogether. By 2014, I’ll be Medicare eligible, too – in the meantime, I’m uninsured.
Doubtless, no important health problems will crop up in the meantime…./s

I’m almost ready to push for delay – does anyone think more time would allow voters to become more educated?

I joined a LinkedIn group yesterday on which the main discussion was on the healthcare bill, started by a poster who framed it as “shouldn’t this be bipartisan?”

Encouragingly, the majority of answers were, “hell, no, and here’s why”, giving all the obvious reasons we all know here.
The initiator kept coming back with, “hey thanks for your comments, but” followed by typical spin.
The more he posted, the more obvious it was that he knows nothing about the situation of health care, the operation of health insurance now or why the costs in this country are so much more than anywhere else– and that he didn’t even know what Snowe’s trigger plan was – or even that Snowe was important to “bipartisanship” on the bill.

I’m afraid I responded with some angry comments about finding out something about the subject before posting stupid statements. I was getting angrier and angrier.
This was an educated person, an executive in a retail business, and just demonstrated to me how ignorant people are aabout what’s going on. And, of course, that Repub and ins. industry disinformation is working all too well.

Thanks for sharing your early thoughts on where we are now. But, I’m confused that you’re “relatively pleased with the general design of the public option”. Just who & how many of us will be allowed to opt for the public option as opposed to how many of us will NOT be allowed to partake? Also, what happened to the biggest purported benefit of the public option, real competition to dramatically lower HealthCare costs?

If they do, they simply have no conscience. The public will not be happy when they see the results of this travesty. And all in the name of not being disruptive to the insurance industry! Sickening!

You know, the Obama Administration has made a big deal about how disruptive single payer would be to the immense machinery of employment provided to us by the insurance industry. So I was shocked to read that Aetna only employs about 35,500 people in the entire country. And, yes, they feel the need to lay a couple thousand of them off soon. If we were to add up all of the employees of the major medical insurers I have a feeling we would be reaching a sum of probably not more than 200,000 to 300,000 in the entire country. In other words, about the same number of jobs we are loosing right now in this country every month. A fine irony is that most of these employees would be usurped by a good Single Payer government employment system and they would have good benefits and an excellent retirement plan! The only ones who probably would not qualify due to their inapplicability to any useful purpose or their high salary and bonus requirements would be the chief executives. As usual, Obama’s faith in the status quo has cost us dearly in terms of getting real reform. I would not vote for him again, he’s part of the problem.

cbsunglass, Neither would (will) I “vote for him again”. I rarely look back, but I’m very disappointed I didn’t see through his charade and vote for Hilary. At least with Her I would’ve gotten the person I voted for.

I have been wondering the same thing. I live in Georgia…(oish)… it is only now that most people are even realizing that there are people in their state that are uninsured. That said uninsured are those that take their orders in the restaurants they eat in, sit next to them in church, volunteer with them on the PTA, and whose kids play with their kids. Or that the health insurance companies have a monopoly. Only now are they coming to a point of view that reform is needed. It would take a while longer yet, for them to move out of the knee jerk “anything Obama does is bad, bad, bad” response. I wonder if we haven’t rushed to push the issue at the expense of explaining the need, never mind the solution. And the Senate bill as it stands now, IMHO is a horrible bill. And because the need is not understood fully, the solution a vague something yet to be discovered, the people in this state will blame all reform, rather than this bill. Just my wonderings.

Agreed. Primary…

My Moms always said (and I’m paraphrasing), If you’re going to do something, do it right. So let’s do it right: single payer.

unlike the HOUSE plan, the Senate plan does not provide an extension for COBRA.
Under the HOUSE bill, anyone on COBRA or state COBRA extensions would be allowed to stay on those plans until the exchange offers insurance.

The people on COBRA are almost all folks who have pre-existing conditions, folks over 50 and others who CANNOT now buy insurance.

This is an outrage. To me it is as bad as any of the other takeaways in the SENATE bill.

The whole concept stinks. Forget 8 points. Mandates are the most regressive tax one could imagine, and there’s no quality control of the crap insurance the poor and young are going to be forced to buy. Shit on the whole thing.

The only saving grace for me personally is that I’ll be eligible for Medicare by the time this awful thing would be in place.

As someone who recently qualified for Medicare, and who can’t find a doctor who accepts it, let me tell you that it’s no picnic.

I hope you live someplace with lots of doctors, a large percentage of whom will accept Medicare payment. If you need a specialist, lots of luck.

My friends who live in Alaska have the same “sorry, we don’t accept Medicare patients [and BTW if you were previously our patient but have now turned 65, you're outta here]” experience.

“Nationwide” plans for insurance, as they have for credit cards, are an invitation to abuse. There is no competent national regulator of health insurance practices and this Congress and president resist instituting one. The result will be the lowest common denominator plan for the highest cost and, predictably, deceptive advertising in selling it and complete inattention from reuglators and sellers of such plans in responding to complaints.

How is it that Congress can make enable health insurance/payment industry, to make it more powerful and less accountable, and call it reform?

We’ve already seen how beholden Congresscritters are to the banksters, in the run up to credit card reforms coming into force. It has actually blocked common sense restrictions that would prevent abuse during the long run-up Congress intentionally allowed the banksters. How much more opportunity will Congress give to insuresters to game non-existent or weak federal regulators and fifty different state regulators in the five years it’s allowing them “to adjust” to new lines on the playing field?

Short, succinct, sweet. Thank you.

The Senate Bill appears to be a giveaway, of the highest sort.

It all but seems to guarantee the failure of the public option, which is shit.

Now what, progs?

It is not a problem with the “health bill”. It is a problem with the media allowing our “representatives” to sell us out for too long with no consequence.

I have been absent from most medical “reform” threads because I am so sure that the legislation is highly likely to make the problem worse. So if you ask me what’s next, it’s worse than you already know.

iirc we were having a discussion about the cms report on the house bill and how we can expect that to get worse — maybe much worse.

imo, instead of dividing us by class/age into all these different groups with different access to healthcare, we need to be in the same group. 1) it foster social solidarity, 2) when there are problem the interests of those with political and economic power in getting the system fixed will help those who have no/little power. 3) if rationing is required it should be done on need and not on class.

my 2 cents.

Thanks for doing this, Jon, really.

Please y’all, we do not need more time. This all needs to be expedite so that insurance companies and pharma can’t rig the new system to suit themselves.

But I can’t say this loudly enough about the “opt-out” in red states: the people who’ve been forced to the back of the line, the poor and the working poor are going to, once again, be left out if they are in conservative states that will making political statements by rejecting the new programs.

THESE FOLKS REALLY CAN’T WAIT ANYMORE, AND THEY ARE THE CANARIES IN THE COAL MINES: AS THEY GO NOW WE ALL GO IN THE LONG HAUL. DELAY IS A FRIEND ONLY TO THOSE WHO DON’T CARE ABOUT ANY OF US ANYWAY.

Ya know, there is ONE positive thing I think all prog/libs can take away from our frustrations regarding the lack of change, FISA, TARP, HCR and other change failure we are experiencing.

NEVER IN THE HISTORY of our country has every single issue and minutia been examined and evaluated and discussed in a public vein.

That has GOT to piss off our Reps, Senators, The Obama Admin and corporate feudalist overlords to no end.

We now have the means not only to investigate and review their shit, we have a means to DISCUSS it, and provide them with OUR feedback and dissatisfaction. And threaten them with removal from office with our votes.

And threaten them with our potential to boycott advertisers, boycott products, and more.

That’s just GOT to piss them all off to no end.

And THAT sustains me just a wee lil bit, when I get frustrated about not getting what I want.

*G*

I now return myself to the usual *WTF!* mode.

Whatever happens, progressive Democrats in Congress should be made to understand that they cannot walk away from the issue like they did in 1994. If it doesn’t pass because of Holy Joe or Bought-Out Ben and Blanche or Mindless Mary, progressives in the Senate should start over with single-payer and start building public support by saying that the effort failed because it was too complicated. And that it was the decision to leverage the private health insurance sector instead of leveraging Medicare that made it too complicated.

But don’t let the pressure to get something done drop. Make the failure to pass hang on the Republican stonewall instead of on sold-out Democrats in the general election. In the Senate only Blanche seems to be up for re-election this year. In the House, there are a bunch of folks who are already drawing primary challengers.

This time 60% of the public knows exactly who is causing the gridlock. The Gingrich gambit won’t work again, and you know that the GOP is gearing up for it because they are starting to chant “term limits” and “deficits” again. There should be no Republican unopposed in 2010, and one of the things to remind people of is that they did not keep their word on term limits; they did not keep their word on fiscal prudence; they did not keep their word on a humble foreign policy.

Progressives in Congress should let Obama know that he cannot walk away from this effort like Bill Clinton did when the Senate Finance Committee voted against his complicated bill.

But if, miraculously, a combined piece of crap, emerges from conference and goes for Obama’s signature and he signs it, progressives in Congress should know that their first action is to put legislation on the table to fix what’s wrong with the bill. And the progressive netroots should make those fixes local issues for Democrats who sold out.

Progressives need to get in front of the populist outrage this time and have clear non-jargon statements about what needs to be done. Because if we don’t get in front of the populist outrage, the astroturfed teapartiers will be there with the RVs and motorcycles and sound systems and carnival barkers and their psycho-talk.

This is only the beginning of this fight, and in some respects it is good that some of the garbage does not take effect until 2014. And that we have the issue of moving up the dates on the good stuff for the 2010 election.

Has there been any backlash against mandates in MA?

Heh, I have LOTS of experience in pondering worst case scenerio’s. It’s a gift of mine.

Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

That planning for the worst has been a thorn in the side of many a co worker or a boss who just didn’t want to hear about it.

I’ve watched many fall along the way for failure to accept the worst COULD happen, when it did.

*G*

I’m sure in your professional experiences you’ve seen plenty of that . . . . at a much higher level of operations than I ever will.

JMO, you can’t fix the problems enacted. Everyone will give up the fight once a bad bill is enacted.

selise to the courtesy phone

Well, on the personal statement on the petition to audit the FRB, I did note that I had personally analyzed the FRB’s bubble policy professionally for many years. With that and $2.25, I can get a ride on the NYC subway.

selise has a long history of courtesy. So if she does not pick up the phone tonight, her history provides plenty of cushion. *g*

Me too.
I don’t see anything good, when I look from my birds eye view.
Detail by detail is just infuriating and a bunch of other stuff.

nothing organized as far as i know. but MA is not like most of the rest of the country. i think only about 3% of the population was affected by the mandates (we had very high insurance rates to begin with). also subsidies are higher than what i saw in the house bill. also we had things like a modified guaranteed issue, community ratings, no exclusion for pre-existing condtions, etc PRIOR to our 2006 reform. iow, much less fucked up than what i hear from other parts of the country.

that said, for people who’ve been affected by the 2006 reform, the poll i saw was that results were negative.

oh, and after reading the cbo and cms reports on the house bill, i thought that in almost all cases the MA reform was superior to what congress is coming up with (how scary is that?). when i called my rep’s office to inquire, i was assured that since we already have a waiver from the HHS for our reforms, we will be able to keep our exchanges, etc even if fed reform is implemented. she and i were both relieved about that.

(((eCAHN))). thanks.

(((selise)))

Thanks for the real time evidence from MA. Details really matter.

I didn’t read Elliot’s comment as saying Selise wasn’t being courteous.
What the fuck do I know.
Still….
((ecahn, selise and elliot))
Could be something else. Let’s consider.

old report from this winter, but see figure on page 11 for polling info referred to above:

http://pnhp.org/mass_report/mass_report_Final.pdf

i didn’t either! group hug for anyone who wants….

I’m there.

You have the best BIL whoever that was. He responded to all my irreverent queries with the seriousness with which they were meant. Much appreciated, and told him so.

I know that it is the natural inclination, but giving up the fight is exactly the wrong thing to do at this historical moment. That is exactly what the defenders of the status quo are hoping for – a repeat of the Medicare Catastrophic Care bill catastrophe.

And that is what the GOP is pinning its hopes of resurgence on.

(((Good on group hugs.)))

So glad to hear and will pass on. :)

One of the more interesting human divides. Declare defeat because all the evidence points to that outcome, or keep on fighting because there is no alternative. My profession was economic forecasting, so I look at the evidence and try to determine what the outcome might be, placing me firmly in the former, not the latter, group.

More like him.

I know she does, she also has a history with the MA system. No offense indented whatsoever.

for some reason beyond my comprehension, the dems in congress (other than possibly kucinich, massa and sanders) appear, as far as i can tell, to be doing the R’s work for them.

I know you know. My comment was for those who might not know. If there aren’t enuf “knows” in the comment, I know what I know, or perhaps I don’t know anything.

You’re right, demi. Of course there was no offense intended.
Just calling for her input.

Oh, dear selise, this has been true for quite a number of months (years?). Perhaps related to campaign contributions, at a wild guess.

Just talked to Sissy. Passed it on.
We’re all smiling together.

Big grins. From me.

dak’s upstairs
Cashing In On Disabled Veterans
bahstards

i should add re the 2006 MA reform, the lack of cost controls are so bad that all kinds of horrible cost “savings” are being enacted or planned. one of the earliest was to take $$$ from community hospitals which serve the most needy. then there was the dumping of legal residents. latest one i just read about was to stop automatic annual re-enrollment of commonwealth care recipients (that’s the subsidized exchange) even though they were still qualified so al to decrease the number of people covered with subsizied plans. if i understand that one rightly, it strikes me as pure evil — the poor and ill have the hardest time navigating the system to get paperwork, etc complete. and what is a person supposed to do who is sick in the hospital when their annual re-enrollment time comes up?

yikes!

i know. more group hugs!

You take care of the bahstads, would you? I’ve got a book and a bath.
I’m hanging on by nails these days. Pretty much.
Lots of love and hugs to all.

of course you are right. but as cynical as i try to be, i keep being gobsmaked at how bad the dems really are. i did not expect it at this level from either congress or obama. but, as you say, it is probably systemic issues.

This is an excellent overview. Three further remarks:

1. Interstate sales. There’s a timing differential that’s very disturbing. I think it’s quite significant. The Senate bill permits nationwide plans from the get-go. In contrast, it allows states to enter into compacts that would allow for interstate sales. But these compacts can’t take effect until 2016! Why? Well, here’s my guess: By 2016 nationwide plans will have mooted the issue! And don’t think the industry won’t go full tilt. All they talk about is how wonderful it will be once they go nationwide. It’s practically the only thing that qualifies as a Republican reform proposal.

2. Premium ratios. The Senate’s age discrimination provision allows insurers to charge 3 times as much for older as they do for younger customers. The House caps the ratio at 2:1.

3. The Senate and House bills not only have different implementation timelines. They have different transition schemes. The Senate seems bent on instituting a nationwide insurance market. The House has insurers and employers hashing out policy packages that will pass HHS muster by 2013. Oh, they agree on some things. Both would limit access to insurance exchanges and hence to the public option. That’s a common denominator we can agree is a shaft. But I see a stormy conference process up ahead as the two bodies decide on the best way to shaft us.

They all need to take a vacation to reality and instead of posturing at town halls with their constituents actually see what is going down on their proverbial “Main Street”.

But their biggest problem is that they don’t fear their base. And we’ve made it easy for them to do, either through cynicism, despair, or laziness. There are no penalties for poor performance.

Well, I suppose that is a convenient way of looking at it if you are well-off, healthy, or on Medicare.

Does anyone have a good site with info about insurance company profits? That same thread I mentioned above at 3 is now talking about how “low” the insurance company profits are, so the companies “can’t be the problem” causing high health care costs.
They keep citing a profit of about 2.2%; this is opposite to everything I’ve understood, but I don’t know where to look to refute it.

A troll has grabbed the thread, posting long tirades full of misinformation, opinion, and spin. A few facts might at least convince other readers of the thread. That guy, as we all know, is obviously impervious himself to facts.

Not if the american people are as frustrated as the progs/libs are about change issues, and HCR.

And I am pretty sure they are as frustrated as me.

If not more.

I think there’s LOTS of fight in the american public for real change, for a betterment of standard of living.

Bad legislation is gonna immediately have bad impacts, and the public is gonna shout holy shit over immediately rising premiums and disqualy of coverage, treatment, and more.

The peasants are really restless, from coast to coast.

It’s been a slow smolder for many more conservative minded Heartlanders everywhere, but they are all being sufficiently screwed along with the rest of us that they are now expressing their displeasure. They are on board with the need for change. They know they are also, now, under siege.

I have hope for a future . . . but I’m frustrated the change is taking so long to be demanded by the masses.

If you don’t know the details, you don’t know what to complain about, you can’t take anyone to task effectively.

We may get shit legislation from the Senate, sure, and who knows what the House/Senate final bill will be (if there is one) that’s presented to Obama to sign.

But without folks like those at FDL and others doing the dirty work of pouring over word for word the rest of us would never know shit.

And knowing shit may not get us what we want, now, but it’s hell of a step up from the past 30 years.

And again, it’s got to piss off the PTB to no end we’re in THEIR shit.

*G*

“No negative vibes, man.” -Tank Commander Oddball

You can get instant medical insurance at the lowest price from http://bit.ly/39pFJx

Hi Tarheel, I agree with most everything you’ve said. But if progressives vote to pass this bill and also engage in the general self-congratulations about how it will provide universal, affordable, and comprehensive health care for All Americans, then how can they come back next year and say that the bill must be fixed? To get it fixed don’t they at a minimum make it obvious that are holding their noses in voting for this with the clear understanding that hcr will taken up again to fix this bill at the beginning of next year? And wouldn’t it be even better if they defeated any bill like the ones we have now? Wouldn’t this create a situation where the blue dogs, the leadership, and the President, would have to quickly come back in a bargaining mood, and get something the progressives could live with passed, or alternatively face voters angry about their failure to pass any reform?

“I’m still not giving up. I want every Senator who’s not in the pocket of the private insurers or Big Pharma to introduce and vote for a “Ted Kennedy Medicare for All” amendment to whatever bill Reid takes to the floor. And if this fails, a “Ted Kennedy Real Public Option for All” amendment. Let every Senate Democratic who doesn’t have the guts to vote for either of them be known and counted.”

Robert Reich: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/the-ersatz-public-option_b_364396.html

I have to hand it to Reich. He sums it up well.

I feel about the Senate bill the same way I do about the House bill: It must not pass. The only hope now is for an explosion in conference that blows the lid off of these competing ways of shafting us, brings so much out into the open that people scream bloody murder when they learn the gory details. These schemes have so much double-dealing in them! They’ve been counting on public ignorance. But any Democrat who thinks this is how to get re-elected is living in Fantasyland. The best thing that can happen for the party now — and, more importantly, for us — is a reboot.

we cannot afford national health insurance like other industrialized countries have.

we have our mega profits to make off the sick and needy and our corp wars for profits to conduct.

this is america and we are a christian nation

we must do the christian thing and let those die that cannot afford health insurance and kill others in our illegal invasions of third world countries to enhance corp profits.

god bless america truly a christian nation.

while blogs like this one argue who is to blame the killing and greed continues.

the world looks in awe and wonderment at our selfishness
and greed.

and we wonder why the terrorists hate us.

This isn’t a lump-in-the-throat “historical moment.” It’s the biggest, most horrific, disruptive, stupid, corrupt sellout and wholesale robbery I’ve witnessed in my 64 years on the planet. My wife and I hate these bills. There’s no health, no care, and certainly no “reform” anywhere to be seen. The insurance companies are the PROBLEM. Jesus Christ, we vote these bastards into office and they work for somebody else! That’s like calling the cops, and they gang-rape your wife.

Medicare for all is what we need. Stop blowing up brown people in mud huts on the other side of the world, and we could afford everything.

Progressives should not engage in the general self-congratulations about passing this bill. They should say that it is a difficult compromise and that there are issues in the bill that must be fixed before they take effect in 2013, 2014 or whenever.

They should say that the bill, in spite of their efforts, turned out to be a bailout for the health insurance industry. And they should blame the industry sell-outs in both parties for the taxes on the middle class and the poor protections against rises in premiums that are in the bill and insist that this revenue problem be fixed immediately. And they should position the issue of fixing it as an issue for the 2010 campaign so that progressives can stand in the populist frame instead of the teabaggers.

good little corporate puppets in Congress:

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/november/in-house-many-spoke-with-one-voice-lobbyists%E2%80%99“

Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies.

E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans. The lobbyists, employed by Genentech and by two Washington law firms, were remarkably successful in getting the statements printed in the Congressional Record under the names of different members of Congress.

Genentech, a subsidiary of the Swiss drug giant Roche, estimates that 42 House members picked up some of its talking points — 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats, an unusual bipartisan coup for lobbyists.

Thanks for this analysis. I understand that the public option covers only 2%, too small to have any kind of competitive power or negotiating advantages, too inaccessible to most people, useful to take the sickest and most expensive American patients away from insurance companies to save them money.

Re the late start:

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/november/three_frequently_ask.php

The main provisions of the AHCAA [Affordable Health Care for America Act] wouldn’t go into effect until 2013. This was done because the President promised to keep the bill under $1 trillion over 10 years, and this is only possible by delaying implementation until the 4th year, making a 6 year budget look like a 10 year budget. If reform passes through the Senate and is signed into law by President Obama, we are likely to see no change whatsoever in Massachusetts for the next three years.

The single payer expanded medicare for all movement could use some seriousl help, and Bernie Sanders bill S703 is coming up for a vote.

The Congresspeople who are mensches you can count on one hand with fingers left over, both Houses, so why can’t we as progressives cover their backs and stop being so “pragmatic” about what is politically savvy and just do what is moral? Universal coverage is a friggin’ human and civil right. Let’s not leave it to the next generation. FDL knows how to kick ass. Why not for this?

Didn’t know but am not surprised about the treatment of illegal immigrants. Keeping empathy out is a bipartisan compromise, I guess. You are right. It is not only mean, it is fiscally and medically stupid.

just want to say thanks to jon again for this very quick report on problems with the bill.

as bad they are, the one that really hits home to me personally is:

4) Nationwide Plans Gutting State Regulation – The merged bill still has the “nationwide plans” (formerly “national plans”) from the Senate Finance Committee bill. They are a top priority of the health insurance lobby. National plans would not be required to follow the minimum benefit laws in the states in which the policies are sold. These “nationwide plans” effectively gut state law regulating insurance coverage.

if i understand this correctly, all the work that has been done in MA regarding regulation (cost control is another matter) will be for naught. i live in MA because of those regulations and my life has depended on them.

of course, if i were a better person, i’d be equally as concerned about all the other problems. but i just can’t help being personally really scared and angry about this one.

The CBO scoring of the Senate’s Health Care Bill comes in at $849 Billion over a 10 yr. period that reduces the deficit by over $130 Billion and is paid for.In honor of Veteran’s Day. According to a study released by the Harvard Medical School, 2,266 veterans under the age of 65 died last year as a result of not having health insurance. Researchers emphasize that “that figure is more than 14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001.”It’s time for American Women to Stand-up/Speak-up for your full medical rights. Stop the rabid right-wing from restricting American womens medical choices. Call Congress and demand the “stupak-pitts amendment” be stripped from Health Care Reform. Also, demand that liebermann be stripped of his chairmanship of HSC and kicked out of the Caucus.Criminally corrupt politicians are the reason the U.S. is ranked near the bottom of every catagory when ranked next to other modern, industrialized nations. Time for publically funded elections. lieberman $12.6M, mcconnell $7.8M, baucus $7.7M, cornyn $6.7M, kyl $5.6M, grassley $5.4M, ensign $5.2M, conrad $5.1M, cantor $4.9M, nelson $4.9M, burr $4.8M, boehner $4.4M, hatch $4.4M, lincoln $4.1M, vitter $3.9M, carper $3.6M were paid by the Medical Industrial Complex to kill Health Care Reform. (Source: OpenSecrets.org, Aug. 09)Follow the Money: LinkCall Congress and demand, Single-Payer Health Care for All!(Toll Free # House and Senate)1-866-338-1015 _____ 1-866-220-0044 1-866-311-3405Sign Single-Payer, Public Option and Health Care as a Civil Rights Petitions: Link Link Link kucinichpetition Don’t let the Medical Industrial Complex steal your Health Care from you and your family by donating huge sums of money to Crooked Politicians in order to maintain the Status Quo. Keep up the good fight.SEMPER FI!