Single-payer healthcare protesters disrupt Senate hearing; Chairman calls for more police
OPS_admin | May 05, 2009 | Comments 0
Single-payer healthcare protesters disrupt Senate hearing; Chairman calls for more police
Want single payer universal healthcare? Don’t try to bring it up in the Senate.
Health care activists disrupted a Senate Finance Committee hearing Tuesday, standing up one after the other as Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) tried to restore order.
As soon as police escorted one protester out of the room, another would stand up, criticizing the committee for convening a panel of 15 experts and excluding witnesses who support creating a Medicare system for all Americans. About eight were led out of the hearing.
Baucus’ response? “We need more police.”
A video of the protest appears below.
According to Politico, the protest was held by Healthcare Now, Physicians for a National Health Program and Single Payer Action, who back a single-payer, government health care system.
The health insurance lobby has signed onto healthcare reform, seeing it as more or less inevitable, but are pushing for what’s called a “universal mandate” which would require everyone to purchase private insurance. Universal single-payer healthcare seems unlikely, though Congress could create a public entity to compete with private health insurance plans and would likely subsidize health insurance for those who can’t afford it.
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If we don't change our ways soon...
A new report by the Royal Society, chaired by Nobel prize-winning biologist Sir John Sulston warns that world population must be stabilized and consumption in wealthy nations must be reduced or the entire planet is in big trouble. As the report reads: "The number of people living on the planet has never been higher, their levels of consumption are unprecedented and vast changes are taking place in the environment. We can choose to rebalance the use of resources to a more egalitarian pattern of consumption... or we can choose to do nothing and to drift into a downward spiral of economic and environmental ills leading to a more unequal and inhospitable future."This is the same warning that President Jimmy Carter gave Americans back in the 1970's - but it was ignored when Ronald Reagan came to power with a "more positive" message basically telling Americans we can do whatever we want. And then after 9/11 - Bush told us all we should go shopping and consume ever more.And now with corporations calling the shots in Washington - long-term sustainability of the planet takes a back seat to short-term profits. If we don't change our ways soon - and embrace clean, alternative energy and educate women around the plant - then we all could be headed for a rough century.-Thom(Is there any chance we will learn in time? Tell us here.) -
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