By David Swanson

Word is that the full House will vote on national single-payer Medicare for All on Friday. This vote is a cover for the removal of an amendment that was in the House "healthcare" bill until Pelosi stripped it out. That amendment would have made it easier for states to enact single-payer, and still would if a conference committee is persuaded to reinstate it.

By Dave Lindorff

It would be easy to read too much into the few statewide races that
were decided last night, but I think it’s fair to say that the results
in New Jersey and Virginia, where Republican gubernatorial candidates
won--in New Jersey’s case knocking off a well-funded Democratic
incumbent--that the results were a blow to the Barack Obama/Rahm
Emanuel strategy of playing to the right, of avoiding confrontation in
Congress and of ignoring the progressive voters whose enthusiasm and
effort back in the 2008 campaign put Obama in office.

The Honorable George Miller
2205 Rayburn House Office Building
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative Miller:

On behalf of the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party, it is my painful duty to inform you of a motion and vote taken on a resolution this past August as it relates to the current national Healthcare debate. My name is Karen Bernal and I am the elected Chair of the caucus. We apologize for the lateness of the news; we feel however, that it couldn’t be more timely and germane than for you to learn of the action now. The Progressive Caucus, comprised of over 700 active members, is the largest caucus in the State Party. At a statewide two-day summit this past August, the Caucus met to discuss and organize around issues that are of concern to us, both inside and outside of the caucus and Party. As you can imagine, the issue of Healthcare was a dominant issue the entire weekend.

I asked Congressman Dennis Kucinich about the prospects for his health-care Amendment - a provision that would allow states to set up their own single-payer healthcare networks.  Here's what he sent to Democrats.com:

This week on CounterSpin: Making sense of the health care debate. In the past week we've supposedly seen the comeback of the public option, in some form or another. We're also told that Harry Reid must gather 60 votes to pass a bill. Is any of this right? And what about a true public health system like single-payer? Author and activist David Swanson will join us to try and untangle these story lines.

Also on the show: Progressives and others interested in truly universal healthcare, as in healthcare that would cover everyone, have been more or less prodded in recent months to give up the idea of a single payer system -- dismissed as it's been for years by a corporate press corps as not politically viable -- and to get behind the public option, presented as single payer's less ideal but more achievable variant. But does public option as it's now presented have anything at all to do with healthcare that covers everyone? We'll talk with Bruce Dixon, managing editor of Black Agenda Report, about that.

LINKS:

David Swanson
Black Agenda Report

In the last 2 weeks I have contacted Rep. Bart Stupak in Michigan, and Sen. Mary Landrau in Lousiana about supporting the public option for thr Health Care Bill.  I am asking all of you great Democrats to contact your Congressional Representatives, and Senators and tell them that the public option is absolutely necessary.

The insurance industry has America held hostage by their practices.  When I recently retired I found that health insurance runs from $180-$850 per month after retirement.  Who can afford this?

The American working men and women deserve to have health insurance that covers any and all illnesses, not just the ones the insurance companies say they will cover.  The working people of America should all be insured, not just the people that can afford it. 

By David Swanson

The absence of a civilized healthcare system in the United States, almost alone among wealthy nations, results in tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths every year. But if something is to be done soon to save lives it is not going to be done in Washington, D.C. It is going to be done in Sacramento, Harrisburg, Columbus, Springfield, Augusta, Denver. And then it's going to be blocked by lawsuits from health insurance corporations and preemptive language in federal legislation.

By Dave Lindorff

On Oct. 13, the New York Times ran a news story headlined
“Door Opens to Health Claims Tied to Agent Orange,” which was sure to
be good news to many American veterans of the Indochina War. It
reported that 38 years after the Pentagon ceased spreading the deadly
dioxin-laced herbicide/defoliant over much of South Vietnam, it was
acknowledging what veterans have long claimed: in addition to 13
ailments already traced to exposure to the chemical, it was also
responsible for three more dread diseases—Parkinson’s, ischemic heart
disease and hairy-cell leukemia.

Under a new policy adopted by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, the VA
will now start providing free care to any of the 2.1 million
Vietnam-era veterans who can show that they might have been hurt by
exposure to Agent Orange.

By David Swanson, BlackCommentator