Single-payer

Friends,

These two letters appeared on the PWW website.

What is going on?

Nancy Pelosi has made it very clear: There will be no single-payer.

I don't want to read about single-payer in the PWW again.

Joel was right not to mention single-payer.

The Minnesota Problem is rapidly spreading.

We must bring this problem under control before it becomes pandemic. The Minnesota Problem is deadly and pernicious proceeding with utmost stealth permeating every political discussion with single-payer universal health care as an incremental baby step towards socialized health care which would put us right back to 20th Century Socialism. I say: No way; no how!

The main way the Minnesota Problem manifests itself and infects the body politic is through advocacy of single-payer. We all know who is responsible for the MN DFL passing that damn single-payer resolution. I'm not going to mention any double four letter words. We all know the culprit.

We are finally beginning to understand the way the Minnesota Problem spreads. Communist Clubs, like healthy living cells, multiply and constantly replenish bringing a sick body back to a healthy state. Not that I am acknowledging there is anything unhealthy taking place in the center because I am not. We have protected ourselves with glass offices inside of brick walls. The enemy ideology carried by Minnesotans will not permeate our well fortified walls and glass offices built as a barrier to all outside influences and problems.

We must revert back to the most advanced 16th Century science on a temporary basis to halt the spread of the Minnesota Problem.

There will be no single-payer universal health care per our agreement with our coalition partner H-CAN.

My personal preference is the John Marty plan. Marty is an OK guy. When I write my book "Socialism in Increments" Minnesota State Senator John Marty will be quoted very liberally. I might even put his picture in a small box next to mine on the cover.

In closing, let me point out that on this May Day 2009 we should recognize that our friend, ally and all-round advocate for the people, President Barack Obama, has just completed the most successful and historic 100 Days of any presidency in the history of our great country solidly pushing, prodding and doing whatever political arm-twisting is required to implement a progressive agenda based upon the core principles of our Party. These three important words: Profits Before People.

Let me also point out that those Minnesotans will most likely nit-pick about the order of these three words: Profits Before People. This is the new 21st Century grammatically correct writing technique.

The old 20th Century grammar had it: People Before Profits.

Look it means the same thing either way you place the words.

The word "profit" still retains its meaning.

The word "people" still means the same thing.

The word "before" still means before as opposed to after.

As long as you place the word "before" between the words "profit" and "people" it means the same thing. In our new way of looking at the world we are only concerned with what individual words mean.

So, Barack Obama is advancing our new concept of "Profits Before People."

All power to profits AND people! Long live the power of Barack Obama! Return May Day to Law Day! Everyone to the Street; Wall Street!

Sam Webb
National Chair, CPUSA



Single-payer

The quote from Sen. Sherrod Brown that single payer “is not possible right now” should not be left with out a rebuttal (“Health care reform rally: Yes we can!” on pww.org). That’s the insurance companies’ line. Of course it’s possible, and “yes we can” have single-payer, if we struggle for it! And if the PWW hammers away with informative articles which bolster our efforts on this.

Thousands of dedicated folks, including myself, are out there struggling to get single-payer “on the table” where it belongs and then into law, which is what the majority of Americans want as recent polls indicate.

We are battling the insurance companies on this issue and to have articles pushing positively for HCAN works against us to say the least. HCAN is a wedge movement formulated with the insurance companies and the leadership of some unions (not the membership) to keep the insurance company culprits in the mix, doing what they have been doing which is keeping 45 million without health care, killing over 20,000 every year, denying coverage to make their billions.

Doing health care reform “half-assed” with a “public option” keeping the culprits in the mix is doomed to failure and should be fought from the get-go.



Michael Scheinberg

Via e-mail



Obama and Congress are headed for disaster in the health care bill this summer. The goal of an affordable, workable plan for universal care is known, but nobody is talking about it. Joel Wendland in the Peoples’ Health column (4/25-5/1) does not mention the single-payer public plan in the two options being debated now in Congress, i.e. private insurance and a “public option.”

Single-payer is not an option unless all others are excluded. Single-payer health care is working all over the world but apparently is anathema in the U.S., where Congress debates timeworn failures like private health insurance and partial public programs.

Private health care insurance is hopelessly reactionary and unworkable due to cherry-picking of the healthy population, cost ballooning on administration and profits, and inadequate medical delivery. The public programs which we now have (along with private competition) are too expensive, incomplete and do not lead toward single-payer.

Public programs have been tried in Massachusetts, Washington and Oregon and have not worked when competing with private lobbyists. Experts in Physicians for a National Health Plan state that 59 percent of doctors and 62 percent of the public favor single-payer national health insurance (see Conyers bill HR 676, “Medicare for All.”) We must insist on it.



Walter Kearns, MD

Canoga Park CA