Minnesota Universal Health Care Coalition

In an impassioned speech on the Senate Floor, Senator Bernie Sanders defends Medicare-for-All identifies its broad support and underscores the moral depravity of our current system.  Sanders introduced the historic single- payer amendment, but withdrew it when obstructionist Republican Senator Coburn insisted the entire amendment be read into the record. After reading the first hundred plus pages of the 700 page amendment in just under 3 hours, Sanders withdrew the amendment in order to keep the debate on the Senate bill moving. Among other things in his remarks, he references the study published in Minnesota Medicine showing that 64% of Minnesota physicians support single payer and notes Minnesota's efforts to pass a state single-payer bill.

Watch his speech on C-SPAN- A MUST WATCH

Keith Olbermann speaks with Dr. Paul Hochfeld an emergency medical physician from Corvallis, Oregon affiliated with the group "Mad as Hell Doctors". Hochfield was able to talk his way into Obama's Rose Garden press event with physicians earlier this week.

Hochfield talks about the dangers of a watered down public option that could end up with the sickest patients and be doomed to fail. He explains why single-payer is the best solution.

The Minnesota HCAN Coalition held a protest at UnitedHealth headquarters in Minnetonka on Monday October 5. 100 plus joined in blocking the entrance to UnitedHealth's south building. Six were arrested for refusing to leave.  This act of civil disopedience is in coordination with national protests against the insurance industry and their efforts to block health care reform. Apparently it takes arrests to get the media's attention. Read some of the coverage here:

Huffington Post writes about this protest and a prior one at the home of Stephen Helmsley, CEO of UnitedHealth Care
StarTribune
Minnesota Independent

"Let's get on with it, Mr. President. We're up the proverbial creek with spaghetti as our paddle. This health care thing could have been the crossing of the Delaware, the turning point in the next American Revolution - the moment we put the mercenaries to rout, as General Washington did the Hessians at Trenton. We could have stamped our victory 'Made in the USA.' We could have said to the world, 'Look what we did!' And we could have turned to each other and said, 'Thank you.'"

Watch it here

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Bill Maher interviewed Bill Moyers August 28th- The Conscience of a Nation

Anthony Wiener appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews on August 18th talking about the health care debate. He passionately explains the benefits of Medicare-for-All and questions what value, if any insurers add to health care. His amendment substituting HR 676 for the House health reform bill HR 3200 will get a floor vote in the Congress in October.  View the clip here

Three separate House committees -- Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Labor -- have come together on one bill. The bill is 1018 pages, and MUHCC is working to understand its substance. (See the federal reform sublink under "Other Health Care Legislation" on the MUHCC website). The bill does create a Public Plan, sets benefit packages, and creates a Health Insurance Exhange for the uninsured and small businesses. You can find summaries and fact sheets here.

July 10, 2009
Bill Moyers interviews Wendell Potter, a former CIGNA Vice President, the country's fourth largest health insurance company. Potter offers an insider view into the insurance industry and the quest for profits.

They discuss, among other things, the way the insurance industry uses scare tactics to discredit reform efforts, and professes to offer concessions and market reforms calling it their "charm offensive". Mr. Potter offers some very blunt admissions and observations.

"We shouldn't fear government involvement in our health care system. That there is an appropriate role for government, and it's been proven in the countries that were in that movie. (He is referring to Sicko)

FRONTLINE Investigates the Failures of America's Health Care System

Bill Moyers Journal
Aired Friday, May 22, 2009 on PBS

Washington's abuzz about health care, but why isn't a single-payer plan an option on the table? Bill Moyers speaks with advocate Donna Smith about how our broken system is hurting ordinary Americans. Then, policy analysts and physicians Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen and David Himmelstein of Physicians for a National Health Program join Bill Moyers for a frank discussion about the political and logistical feasibility of a single-payer system amidst the troubled economy and a government dominated by lobbyists. You can watch it here