68% of American Public Supports Single Payer Healthcare Reform

Our grassroots organizing campaign to get an economic impact study to pass HB 1660, a Single Payer, guaranteed healthcare program for all Pennsylvanians, also called “Family and Business Healthcare Security Act” has reached higher ground as three separate events converge that bode extremely well for the eventual passage of the bill.

Here is a summery of these three events:

1) Independence Blue Cross of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh based Highmark Blue Shield were poised to merge and take over health insurance coverage here in Pennsylvania.

But both companies withdrew the merger for reasons that had to do with the fact that the merger would reduce competition for the health care dollar plus an unwillingness on the part of both companies to give up the “Blue Cross-Blue Shield” brand each company spend seventy years developing.

Bottom line, the merger was not going to be approved very likely because of activist opposition by groups such as Healthcare for All Pa.

The merger got lost in the squabble over all of these details.

Single Payer activists are confident that the failure of this merger will dramatically boost the prospects that the Pennsylvania State legislature will pass HB 1660/SB 300, Universal Healthcare, the “Family and Business Healthcare Security Act” that Governor Rendell repeatedly said he will sign.

If you live in Pennsylvania, please contact your legislators about this and you might even write a letter to the editor to your local paper.