Report from the Health Care Summit

Oliver Fein MD, president of Physicians for a National Health Program, reports from the President's health care summit on March 5. He and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) were given last-minute invites after supporters of national single-payer health coverage demanded it. Previously, no invitees were known activists in the single payer movement. Conyers is the main sponsor of HR 676, the "Medicare For All" House bill.

Here's Fein:

It was clear that the main message that President Obama wanted to communicate was bipartisanship and transparency, since he avoided most of the truly contentious issues, such as an individual mandate to carry health insurance either for children and/or adults; an employer mandate to pay for coverage; a public plan to compete the private plans in a health insurance exchange; elimination of pre-existing conditions exclusions from private health insurance; taxation of health benefits offered by employers; or permitting Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for drug prices. These are all issues left for discussion and resolution within Congress....

Single-payer, an improved and expanded Medicare-for-All, is the gold standard against which all other proposals for health care reform should be measured.

Advocates need to focus on Congress during the next few months. We need to make the case that co-sponsorship of H.R. 676 raises its legitimacy as a gold standard, and that single-payer advocates should be called to testify at congressional hearings.

Read the whole report. ey