12
street roots
Jan. 21, 2011
Single-payer movement alive and kicking
BY JAY THIEMEYER
C O N T R IB U TIN G W RITER
What: Single Payer Conference
“It is time to recognize that our advocacy
for peace, jobs, education, health, housing,
human rights and environmental and
economic justice is insufficient We face the
same fundamental obstacle: corporate
control of our country. Together we have
the strength and the resources to shift
power away from the rich corporations to
the people and we can demand social
justice. We have the solutions, but they are
not being heard. We must cause enough
disruption that our voices and our solutions
cannot be ignored. And we must organize
actions of nonviolent civil resistance.
Otherwise growing public discontent in this
nation may turn to violent means."
Those are the remarks of Dr. Margaret
Flowers at the protest/vigiljn December
outside the White House fence as the
President held a press conference on our
“progress” in Afghanistan. That day was a
year after she and other physicians
protested on behalf of single-payer health
care in the atrium of the Senate Hart
Building. The chair of the Senate Finance
Committee, which was due to hold hearings
on healthcare reform, so-called, Sen Max
(you can call him the corporate health care
shil) Baucus of Montana, had refused to
even consider single payer in their
deliberations.
The Obama administration was totally
When: 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Sat., Jan* 29.
Where: First Unitarian Church, 1211 SW
Main St.
Register: at www.singlepayeroregon.org.
compliant with this corporate demand.
Single payer, after all, eliminates the
corporate middle man in healthcare
delivery. One third of every dollar spent in
this country on private health insurance is
administrative, that is, the people who
administer delivery of healthcare to the
insured but really whose job it is to
guarantee profits for their employers by
denying coverage. Even to the point, as
revealed during the legislative process, of
“rescission,” simply refusing to provide what
the insured supposed they had paid for.
Corporations can do that: deny the reality
of contractual agreements and services paid
for by patients they’ve subscribed. They live
in a very simple world of unhampered
predation. While arguing their personhood
and all the legal perks that attend that
entitlement, they can’t afford to waste time
on human considerations. It’s energy they
can spend on devising profit-making
schemes to gratify their shareholders and
plump big sums in the laps of their CEO’s.
And it appears increasingly apparent this
administration is yielding more and more to
that reality.
Dr. Flowers, a pediatrician, will be one of
the speakers at the upcoming Single Payer
Conference (singlepayeroregon.org), a
daylong event of speakers, workshops and
spontaneous confabs, due to take place at
First Unitarian Church the last Saturday of
this month.
Other speakers will be Katie Robbins and
Mark Dudcic who also protested at Baucus’
corporate-sponsored hearing and were duly
charged and prosecuted for their insistence
on health care as a human right. The
keynote will be delivered by Rep. John
Conyerrs, former chair of the House
Justiciary, and chief sponsor of HR676, the
single payer legislation. His remarks at
midday will be followed by the Mad As Hell
Doctors who will talk about their travels to
town halls across the country last year, as
well as plans for something similar in
Oregon as the new legislature considers a
single payer bill to be presented by Michael
Dembrow and Chip Shield.
Recommendation: attend this conference
then attend “Stories: From the Streets” at
the Sellwood Auditorium, 7126 SE
Milwaukie, beginning 8:30. Makes you tingle
all over.
Solidarity in defense of our common
wellbeing. Peace and justice can be loads of
fun!
Vertigo Lover
by Shannon Andrews
The righteous of your honesty
brings forth the courage
trusting you.
I pass this day
thinking of you amicably
And your thoughts
entwine with mine
compared to
how much we are identical,
with the same philosophies of life,
so we progress in time together
hoping the sun shines
in our footsteps
and we envision this utopia
as we are in bliss
and nothing can change
my undying love for you.
Since 1979
Changing Lives
Building Communities
Creating Opportunities
Health
Recovery Housing Employment
www.centralcityconcern.org
503-294-1681
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