unless you were compromising with yourself. I'm sick of hearing the "public option was the compromise". No, it wasn't. You can't compromise on something when it's the only policy for which you have advocated. The public option, not single payer, is the demand. A compromised public option is likely to be the compromise. Improved and Enhanced Medicare for All, or single payer, was never on the table. It was never part of the negotiations, thus it was never a policy up for compromise.

God: the General Synod of the United Church of Christ (the President's denomination) has passed a resolution "Calling for the Support of H.R. 676 – Single Payer National Health Care Reform to Advance Health Equity for All and to Eliminate Health Disparities."

Guns: John Murtha (an opponent of gun control who represents one of those "redneck" rural Pennsylvania districts) has just agreed to cosponsor HR676!

Local single-payer activists are justly proud:

Be active!

Writing a letter to the editor and getting it published turned out to be easier than I thought. The important points seem to include [UPDATE: I just found PNHP's LTE guidelines, with many sample letters]:

1. Respond to something recently published (so watch your local paper carefully for an opening).

My local single payer activist sends the following:

The Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee will hold a hearing titled “Examining the Single Payer Health Care Option” on Wednesday, June 10th at 10:30am in 2175 Rayburn House Office Building.

You may be able to watch via webcast.

She adds:

Contact C-SPAN and let them know we would like them to carry it. C-SPAN's Main Number is: (202) 737-3220.

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[Transcript] Nice attitude, huh?

"Got the little torturers up here"? Nope.

"Got the little banksters up here"? Nope.

But just do what any citizen should be able to do and applaud for single payer, and the President who ought to be on your side -- and would be, if his policies were science-based -- diminishes you. Here's the whole thing:

--or at least, get your advocacy into the Senate Finance Committee's permanent record.

In my email today I find this Single Payer Action Page:, which enables you to send single payer advocacy to your Congresscritters and the President, and " ALSO turns your comments into an actual pdf file and sends it as an attachment DIRECT to the Senate Finance Committee, meeting all their *restrictive requirements to make it part of the permanent record."

AHIP's Campaign for an American "Solution" sent me a link to a transcript of a recent live web chat on health care reform with Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, and Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans. Ignani's answers make a joke of Pollack's attempts to make common cause with these creeps.

Ignagni and the people selecting the questions make some classic moves:

When in doubt, don't answer the question:

MarinCA asks: Do your organizations support a public plan option? Why or why not?

About that media blackout: stories go into the pipeline, they just don't seem to come out the other end very often. The March 5th White House press briefing transcript:

2:55 P.M. EST

Helen. Yes, ma'am.

Q In that respect, I want you to reconcile two things.

MR. GIBBS: Okay.

Q In prepared remarks the President said every voice must be heard. He also said, "I want it to be clear at the outset, everyone has a right to take part in the sessions." But you have barred two people who are strongly for single-payer. And Conyers had to beg to come.

MR. GIBBS: Who was barred?

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Greetings everyone.

This is Donna Smith of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee. I am on the staff for CNA/NNOC that is based in Washington, DC. We are busy here welcoming the new Congress and pushing support for single payer healthcare reform and John Conyers' bill HR676.

We are also one of the founding members of the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care along with Health Care-Now, Physicians for a National Health Program, the Progressive Democrats of America and many other labor, faith and political activist groups.

It's an exciting time in Washington, but by no means the time to rest easy because we have a new President and a new Congress. In fact, now is the time to push harder and more directly.

Don McCanne, MD, Senior Health Policy Fellow for Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), on the Obama house parties on healthcare:

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Karen George is in extreme pain, taking "daily doses of Klonopin, Flexeril, and Lortab", but Aetna won't cover surgery to correct her disconnected jawbone, because it is "cosmetic".

Now that I have your attention, I want to change the subject from bashing Aetna.

[GAC, part 0]

I read this stuff so you don't have to, but you can dive into the 82-page PDF too if you like. Or here's the earlier version, it's only 39 pages.

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And use me as your surrogate! What could be better?

Pittsburgh's part in the National Day of Action Against Health Insurance Companies took place today downtown in front of the Highmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield building. I was able to be there for about 45 minutes.

The good parts: perfect weather; a wide sidewalk on a busy corner with lots of pedestrians and cars; a decent sound system; good people speaking with something to say and the ability to say it briefly and affectingly; plenty of signs and leaflets; the news that Pittsburgh City Council is on record as endorsing single-payer healthcare; the Tribune-Review (Scaife's paper!) sent a reporter; the local CBS affiliate sent a cameraman.

For those interested in HR676 activism, I thought I'd pass along some notes I took at a discussion on health insurance/health care sponsored by the League of Women Voters at a nearby community college here in western PA. Seven people affiliated with our local group for single-payer care carpooled to the meeting. We were affluent (well, I'm culturally affluent) professional people; our driver had an Obama sign in his yard, but no horns or tail.

We were able to leave our literature next to the Obama leaflets on a table in the hall. The main event was a panel discussion moderated by a local chiropractor running for the state senate. The audience was between 30 and 40 people, mostly middle-aged to early retirement age.