On Monday, January 11th, over 1,000 people rallied for California Single Payer on the steps of the Sacramento Capitol building. Following the rally, 500 health professional students from over 20 different California campuses, and ten different professional programs held over 90 legislative meetings. Through their efforts, state single-payer gained at least 3 additional co-authorships and a fresh cohort of legislators and staffers were educated in the midst of a pessimistic national debate.

The event was preceded by a six-hour training day on top of 8-hour bus rides for half of the students who left Southern California at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning. The two-day CaHPSA “Lobby Day” event was itself preceded by over 10 statewide conference calls, two regional conferences (with many days of preparation each), multiple press releases from the student media team, one leadership conference, and countless hours of work from local campus student teams including speakers’ series and fundraising drives. The event will be followed-up by selecting statewide student leaders, and campus student teams; by holding regional and campus training workshops; and by continuing to build partnerships with pro-single payer organizations and in key legislative offices through, with a little luck, summer student internships.

All of this should be seen as a phenomenal success, especially considering that it is 100% student run and that the students receive little if any support for their activities. So how can we explain such success amidst an unfriendly environment and when reform at the national level is struggling so dismally? And how can this success be replicated in other states? Two words: Enthusiasm and Organization.

Let’s start with enthusiasm. No one can go to CaHPSA Lobby Day and not come down with a case of infectious enthusiasm. Students sit through hours of preparation and vigorously engage in discussions with often unfriendly opponents of healthcare reform and come away more excited than ever. Young health professionals, with little or no previous exposure to any policy, effectively engage in the democratic process and come out the other end ready for more.

How does this happen? The first step is building enthusiasm at the campus level to get people to the event. This is usually a process of having strong single-payer speakers visit each campus at least once, with follow-up and endorsement from well regarded local student leaders. The leaders get involved because they have real control over the event and input into the formation of the activities. The final push to register students for the lobby day builds on this foundation and is often a combination of blast emails and appeals to friends and social networks. Once at the CaHPSA Lobby Day, the enthusiasm continues because the training day speakers are engaging, the community supporters at the rally are boisterous, and we have an unlimited supply of coffee. And most importantly, learning that you can actively engage in the democratic process is fun! And being well prepared with a group of your peers beforehand to knock down the arguments of your opponents feels great! (This should be seen in contrast to events that are not student led, where students play a secondary role in joint student-physician teams, or where the students feel poorly prepared, or discouraged by not having autonomy over their student group.) By being empowered to make decisions, we are learning that our actions today make a difference tomorrow.

Equally important to enthusiasm is organization. Lobby Day would not be possible without active campus teams and statewide coordination. And of these two, some form of active campus leadership/organization is especially important. In fact, on campuses where we are unable to establish a team or at least a first contact, we often lose the participation of the entire campus even if our event makes it to their local listserv. Over the past couple of years, the existing infrastructure of AMSA campus chapters has been key to our success, but as we try to continually expand beyond the medical student population to other health professional students and students in general, a new form of organization is emerging: CaHPSA, or the California Health Professional Student Alliance. Because we are “campus-based,” CaHPSA ties into the fundamental unit of identity for most students: the on-campus community.

A final essential component of our organization’s success has been community partnership. California Chapter of PNHP, the California Physicians’ Alliance, California School Employee’s Association, California Nurses Association, California OneCare, California Alliance of Retired Americans, Single Payer Now!, and others have been essential community partners both helping us with material supplies and cheering us on at the CaHPSA Lobby Day Rally. As we continue to grow our organization it will be crucial to maintain and further develop organizational partnerships with community partners who each bring their own high levels of enthusiasm and strong sense of organizational identity.

Lessons learned? Incredible success is possible by mobilizing students. And two keys to this success are enthusiasm and organization.

Educate. Advocate. Grow.

I posed this to him: “Many Democratic politicians, including our Blue Dog Rep. Baron Hill, tell us in private conversations that they believe we have to get to single payer eventually. What advice would you give on how to get there?” Without a blink, he replied it’s “going to be a long haul”, and if we don’t pass this bill it’s going to be even longer. He asserted that this bill begins building the required infrastructure for any future progress.

Since then, with the loss of the Democrats’ super-majority in the Senate everything is up in the air. Which brings us back to the recurring question – Should we Kill the Bill? There has been an incredible amount written in the Progressive community about this. At one end is Helen Redmond (CounterPunch 12/23) Beware the Progressive Democrat arguing that we can’t trust Sanders, Weiner, or Conyers and that we’ve got to build our movement without any of that unreliable crew (kind of a rough “logical”conclusion”, if you ask me).

At the other end is Nate Silver of FIveThirtyEight (12/16) Health Care: The Elevator Pitch (and a number of other posts) where this bright political analyst makes the case for incrementalism. Silver also notes “I’ve gotten as many nasty comments and e-mails from Democrats on this issue [over the last two weeks] as I have in the past six months from conservatives on all issues. That emotion is a factor in this debate seems self-evident to me.”

All that emotion is evident as the blame is ladled out for Scott Brown’s Senate victory. Is the message that the country is turning against the Progressives’ urge to legislate change, or that Obama has compromised the hope for change he promised by reverting to Washington business-as-usual and disappointing his base?

The healthcare bill will be at the center of this cyclone, and it’s too soon to say what gyrations the Dems will attempt to push it through. Our response as single payer advocates should remain unchanged – we have strong, informed positions on the poor policy provisions in the bill. I think we are best to remain silent on the political strategy (tragedy?) to be pursued. I see an important distinction between being a pointed, persistent, insistent, carping, kvetching, nagging critic of this bill for policy reasons on the one hand, and joining in the political discussion about the merits of killing the bill on the other.

Let’s not be drawn into the classic Progressive Circular Firing Squad. Our message is clear. If the Democrats still manage to pass some form of health reform, they can celebrate, but WE’RE STILL FOR HEALTH REFORM, AND THIS AIN’T IT!

If no bill passes, then we have a different set of problems/opportunities. If those who predict Republican ascendancy in the ’10 elections are right, then our work is really cut out for us. Meanwhile, all those who forsook single payer for the allure of the public option are ripe to be brought back into our fold. Movement building will continue. Opportunities to form coalitions will appear. As the business community becomes even more frustrated they will open to our message.

Here are the real lessons learned as we look back to the Iowa caucuses last January, from our vantage point looking out on the chaos this January:

1. As much as we had hoped that this was a historic opportunity to make drastic, needed changes in our healthcare system, there really wasn’t the support to go all the way to single payer. We can second guess Obama and Rahm forever, but I don’t believe there ever was a chance in hell that Evan Bayh, much less Lieberman or Ben Nelson would have ever voted for single payer.

2. We should look again at a strategy of incremental reforms, a strategy that has been fruitful for many movements. That is a longer story to explore later.

3. No matter how hard we try to predict the future, we will always be surprised. Remember that even if single payer had passed in the full glory of HR 676 without amendment, we would have to defend it, improve it, and deal with its unintended consequences. This work will never end.

How can we ever hope to win? As Bill Moyers asked David Corn on his PBS show January 8, “Have people been so politically abused that the will to fight for democracy, the political will has been dissipated? “

Will it first take campaign finance reform, to break the grip of the big money? Where will that movement come from? What other options do we have?

There is no better issue to organize around than universal health care. In the environmental movement we learned the word NIMBY – Not In My Back Yard. Sometimes people distain NIMBY’s, but many a NIMBY activist has started locally before coming around to a global perspective. Healthcare is everyone’s back yard, front yard, and right inside the house. Our issue’s not going away, even if some politicians do.

We will stay in this fight for the long haul. There is no real alternative except to quit. When I get discouraged, I turn to one of the original crusading journalists and a real hero, IF Stone (no relation):

“The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you are going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins. In order for somebody to win an important, major fight 100 years hence, a lot of other people have go to be willing – for the sheer fun and joy of it – to go right ahead and fight, knowing you’re going to lose. You mustn’t feel like a martyr. You’ve got to enjoy it.”

One of the great joys of being in PNHP has been the joy of meeting and working with so many wonderful people. I’m in this for the long haul and look forward to seeing you all many more times in the years to come.

With Congress advancing their health reform bills and the President’s vow to improve our health care crisis, I wish I could be hopeful and encouraged. But I’m neither. Instead, I’m dismayed. And listening to my fellow classmates, I’m not alone.

A little over a month ago I stood with 50 other medical students, faculty, and community members in front of Albany Medical College to remember the 45,000 Americans who die each year because they lacked health insurance.

The vigil was called, “Treat! Don’t Trick”, because we stood to ask Congress for reform that will help us treat our future patients, not fool us with hyperbole. I was moved to be a part of the vigil because I am appalled that deaths due to lack of health insurance has more than doubled since 2003.

Ryan McIntyre explained that he wished we could meet to celebrate; however there is not much to celebrate. He is a third year medical student and President of Physicians for a National Health Program student chapter.

“Obama is quoted as saying that if he could start from scratch he would support a single payer system,” Ryan said. “However, instead of starting from there, he started from a compromised position. What if Hippocrates started with a compromised position when he outlined the Hippocratic Oath?”

“For-profit, private insurance has not worked to control costs and cover everyone, and it will not work,” Megan Ash, a first year medical student, told us. “Improved and expanded Medicare for all is the best solution.”

“Health reform is the civil rights movement of our time,” Naazia Husein announced. She is a second year medical student and Co-President of the club Student Perspectives in Advocacy. “A single payer system is not a dream,” Naazia added, “it’s a demand.”

Reverend Harlan E. Ratmeyer, a pastoral care-giver at Albany Medical Center, explained: “The elite group is in the [healthcare coverage] pool, everyone else out of the pool. From the perspective of justice, and the spiritual, economical perspective, we should all be in the pool.”

Other vigil participants spontaneously began telling their stories too. John Wax, a first year medical student talked about how his father, self-employed, only received treatment for his herniated disc because he was a Vietnam Veteran and could get health insurance through the VA.

James Kelley, a first year medical student, shared that his mother was a nurse for 10 years providing health care in a women’s shelter. But when she needed to use her health insurance, she needed to hire an attorney in order to battle insurance claim denials.

The reforms touted on Capitol Hill will not solve these problems. Not even close.

Millions of Americans will still be without health insurance, private insurance companies will continue to deny health care in order to satisfy their stock holders (yes, even if exclusion due to preexisting conditions are unlawful), rapidly increasing health care costs will not be contained and healthcare coverage will still be tied to employment. As future physicians, and from our own life experiences, my classmates and I see that these these are the very things that demand to be changed.

If President Obama wants to be the last president to take up health care reform, then he must reconsider expanding and improving Medicare to include everyone.

Danielle E. Alexander, Albany Medical College Class of 2013, belongs to the American Medical Student Association and Physicians for a National Health Program.

Dear Joseph Frick,

We recognize that Independence Blue Cross was founded with the social mission of providing affordable healthcare to citizens in the Philadelphia area. We know Independence Blue Cross is concerned about the 200,000 Philadelphians and 46 million Americans who cannot afford health insurance. We also know that you’re concerned about the rapidly rising costs of healthcare in this country.

We are concerned, however, with the fact that Independence Blue Cross continues to deny its members life-saving care and is currently funding efforts to kill meaningful healthcare reform in this country, which would bring more affordable healthcare to more people. You have done well at cloaking your efforts behind the slogan “get healthcare reform right,” but your scare tactics and accusations that even a public health care option will have “dangerous consequences” are not benefiting your policy-holders. You are using millions of dollars worth of our insurance premiums to spread that message, too.

The information is in, and it shows that the best option to insure all Americans and provide the best quality care is a single -payer universal healthcare plan. The time has come for Independence Blue Cross to stop blocking the meaningful reform that Americans need and to carry out its mission of serving the “public good”, not its own bottom line.

We are demanding, therefore, that you agree to the following:

3. You will join us at a press conference in one week to announce IBC’s support for both state and national efforts to create a single-payer health insurance system.

Sincerely,

Student Healthcare Action Network
Healthcare NOW!
Mobilization for Healthcare for All

I, Joseph Frick, in order to fulfill Independence Blue Cross’ mission to provide affordable healthcare to residents of the Philadelphia area, agree to the aboe demands. I will join you at a press conference in front of Independence Blue Cross offices one week from today to confirm that we have met your demands and to announce Independence Blue Cross’ support for a single-payer healthcare system.

Signed,

__________________ (Frick never came down to sign this)

Today thousands more called Speaker Pelosi’s office demanding that the Kucinich and Weiner amendments be put forward for a vote as previously promised. Their office was apparently instructed to transfer all such calls to an answering machine. We should be appalled at this effort to dismiss single payer advocates. Short of single payer, this 1,990 page effort to reform health care will be indecipherable for the American public and will quickly become unaffordable. We will be trying to build a house on a crumbling foundation. It will not work and we will be back here again in four years asking what went wrong.

Let me begin by saying that I don’t have any desire to be arrested. I am a pediatrician with three teenagers and a husband who would prefer that I do not spend time in jail. I have never actually spent the night in jail and I imagine it’s not very pleasant.

To be honest, I am a bit frightened. But, I expect that these are normal feelings and I am dedicated to act despite my reservations because there comes a time when our conscience dictates that we act. That time is now (or “way past now” as doctors and patients whom I’ve met in my travels have told me).

In short, I am going to be arrested because I believe that it is my professional responsibility to advocate on behalf of those patients who are suffering and because it is clear that traditional advocacy tools are not working.

The phrase that runs continuously through my mind is “To be silent is to be complicit.” I cannot be complicit in the face of an industry that profits at the cost of human lives and in the face of an administration and Congress that are too dysfunctional to stop this practice.

I left practice more than two years ago to advocate for health reform. This year I traveled on a particularly unexpected and eye-opening journey. In January, I celebrated the inauguration of a new President who I hoped would be the agent to create real change in America. I hoped we would see changes that benefited the people of America (more than the corporations).

I joined the steering committee of the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care because I believed that if we built the grassroots movement for real health care reform: a national publicly financed health system that was truly universal and accountable, Medicare for all, then we would provide the political cover so that the new administration and the Congress could pass it, or at the very least discuss it. I believed when the administration said that it wanted to hear from the Americans, that we would actually have a debate about how to improve health care in this nation.

Early in the year, I lobbied with many other members of the LCGHC who represented health professionals, patients, labor and faith groups. We had two simple requests: include advocates of single-payer Medicare for all in the hearings and do an economic study of single-payer legislation so that it could be compared to the plans being put together in Congress.

We were assured by members, such as Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, that this would happen. However, before long, we saw quotes from the leadership that essentially said all options were on the table except single payer. Ever the optimist, I thought this was simply a signal to work harder. “OK,” I told myself, “they aren’t going to make this easy. No surprise there.”

We continued to meet with members, we pressured the White House to invite single-payer representatives to the Health Summit in March (which they did) and we continued to reach out to organizations to join our movement.

We thought the health care debate would include the stakeholders (health providers and patients), but found that only the stockholders were invited to the table. When it came time for the first series of public hearings on health care, which were held in the Senate Finance Committee, we requested that one single-payer advocate be included with the 41 other witnesses (many of whom represented the private insurance industry, pharmaceutical corporations and big business).

Despite thousands of calls and emails from across the country, our request was denied. That is when it became clear that we would have to use stronger tools. On the day of the second hearing, May 5, eight of us traveled to Washington to attend the hearing. As it began, we stood up one by one and requested a seat at the table. And one by one we were arrested to the sounds of nervous laughter from the members of the committee and audience.

It reminded me of a quote from Gandhi, something like “first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you and then you win.” We returned the following week with nurses and more people were arrested in the committee. This time there was no laughter. I guess that meant we were on to phase three: the fight.

I was invited shortly afterwards to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. In fact, I was the first of 24 people to testify there. I was shocked to hear other members of the panel give poor or misleading information to the committee. I wondered why we weren’t required to testify under oath.

For decades, I and other health providers have found it more and more difficult to provide quality health care. The private insurance industry has placed more and more obstacles in the way of providers and patients in the forms of co-pays, deductibles, networks, uncovered services, the need for authorization, pre-existing conditions, rescissions, rapidly rising health insurance premiums, etc.

And we, the doctors and patients, have done our best to comply with the complex and confusing maze of requirements. We’ve seen medicine turned into a business rather than a healing art. Patients have become consumers and health care has become available only to those who could afford it or were eligible for government programs. Doctors have become frustrated and started leaving practice or opening “boutique” practices.

I traveled with a group of physicians this summer who drove across the country to speak about health reform (see www.madashelldoctorsvideo.com). The level of desperation we encountered was tremendous. Many of the doctors I spoke with said things like, “Well, up until about five years ago I could still get care for my patients, but now, I can’t.” We heard stories of people fired because they or a family member became ill, people who delayed tests or medications due to costs who subsequently died of preventable causes or ended up in the intensive care unit and people leaving the country to have surgery or treatment done in Mexico or Canada where they could afford it.

For decades, legislators at the state and federal levels have tried incremental health reform. I have heard legislators and health advocates say that they are “diehard incrementalists” or “political pragmatists.”

Despite patchwork efforts to expand Medicaid, provide tax credits or subsidies towards the purchase of private insurance or to provide competing public insurances, the number of uninsured and underinsured has continued to grow. The cost of health care in this country has increased faster than wages, inflation and the GDP.

How practical is it to keep trying the same thing and expecting a different result?

We, as a nation, have put off the fight we know we will have to wage if we want real health reform. The fight is against the market model of health care and the foe is formidable. The medical-industrial complex has billions of dollars and strong influence over the politicians.

The revolving door between the medical-industrial complex and the congressional staffers is spinning so fast that it is hard to keep track. For instance, Liz Fowler worked for Sen. Baucus, then became vice president of public policy for Wellpoint (one of the largest health insurers) and then returned to the Senate Finance Committee this year to oversee the legislative process for the health bill.

There are six health insurance lobbyists for each member of Congress and at least 350 of these lobbyists were former staffers. The industry is spending around $1.4 million each day on lobbying.

We are the only industrialized nation to use this market model for health care and it has failed to be either universal or affordable for a very simple reason: the business of private health insurers is to make a profit for their investors, which is done by charging high premiums, avoiding the sick and restricting and denying payment for care. Decisions are made based on what is best for the bottom line, not the health of the patient.

The United States ranks at the top in only one area when it comes to health care and that is for how much we spend. We spend twice as much or more per person than any other industrialized nation and for that we are ranked 37th in the world on health outcomes. We have high infant and maternal mortalities, growing health disparities and low life expectancy.

The other industrialized nations guarantee health care to almost everybody living on their soil. We leave at least 46 million out entirely and have millions more who are insured but unprotected and so they lose their home or go bankrupt trying to pay for needed health care. We rank the highest of the top 19 industrialized nations for the number of preventable deaths, estimated at 110,000 per year in 2007.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We have a model that does work for the population it serves, those 65 years of age and over and the disabled. It is traditional Medicare. Medicare is already nationwide. It finances health care with a very low overhead (3 percent instead of five times that figure for private insurers) and allows doctors and patients to make medical decisions without jumping through numerous hoops (like private insurers do).

The politicians know this, but they try to shut it out because adopting Medicare for all means giving up those generous campaign contributions.

There comes a time when we must ask ourselves if we can continue to delay doing what we know is right. Can we be silent and allow thousands of our fellow Americans to die each year? Is it acceptable to close our eyes and pretend we don’t see because we may believe that we have “good insurance”?

A dear friend recently wrote a song about the health care situation that contains the question “Isn’t this America?” And I ask the same question. If we are spending the most, why aren’t we trying to be the best? Or at least in the top 10? Why aren’t fiscal conservatives demanding that we spend our health care dollars wisely to get the most health for our dollars?

A national single-payer health system, such as Medicare for All, is civilized medicine. It is what civilized societies do for their people. It allows people the freedom to go to school, change jobs, open their own businesses, and provide for their families without the stress of worrying about losing everything if they become ill.

I have decided to join other doctors and citizens in the mobilization for health care reform — a nationwide coordinated nonviolent civil disobedience campaign for Medicare for all. As we saw in other social justice movements such as women’s suffrage and civil rights in the 1960s, change will not come unless we take a stand.

There are some who disagree with or do not understand the purpose of nonviolent civil disobedience. To me, it is clear that this is the path we must take in order to overcome the stranglehold the medical-industrial complex has on our nation. Other methods have failed. We cannot wait. The number of people suffering and dying in this nation every day is unacceptable.

I do this reluctantly but with resolve for those who would like to act but cannot. We will ask to speak with insurance company CEOs and we will demand that they stop denying care and influencing members of Congress. We will spread the message of Medicare for all to the public. I hope that others will join and support the campaign in whatever way they can. The web site is www.mobilizeforhealthcare.org. There is still an opportunity to get real health reform if enough of us take action.

With hopes for peace and a better future,

Margaret Flowers, M.D.
Sparks, MD
Congressional Fellow, Physicians for a National Health Program

My name is Matt Hendrickson, I am an Emergency Physician and the Vice Chair of the Physicians For a National Program, Los Angeles Chapter. Yesterday I was arrested at the Cigna offices in Glendale, California.

After getting last second jitters to join the 12 arrestees in the “Patients Not Profits” event on October 15 at Anthem Blue Cross in downtown Los Angeles, I committed to joining 6 other volunteers for yesterday’s civil disobedience action to protest the harmful practices of private health insurance. Our group included a retired nurse, a Cal Tech Physics doctoral student, an unemployed clerical worker, a computer programmer, a labor organizer and a member of the California Democratic Party Board of Directors.

We participated in three training sessions where we learned about satyagraha (Gandhi’s term for soul force), and “the sword that heals” (Martin Luther King, Jr.): power in society flows not from guns or positions of authority but from the consent and cooperation of the people. That power is unleashed by the combination of refusal to use force to harm one’s opponent and the willingness to make deep personal sacrifices and even suffer for one’s causes.

The action was organized by Mobilization For Healthcare, a one month old organization cobbled together from the financial support of Healthcare-Now! and the civil disobedience expertise of the Center For the Working Poor. Center for the Working Poor is a shoestring nonprofit of young men and women that live communally in an old Victorian home in downtown Los Angeles and take inspiration from the teachings of Reverend James Lawson, the architect of the Civil Rights Sit-In Movement.

Mobilization For Healthcare’s first action was on September 29th, and since then there have been over 20 sit-ins with approximately 100 arrests. Ten other cities had actions today, another ten cities will do nonviolent civil disobedience over the next 6 days. Beyond the next week, Los Angeles is already planning their third action with a new wave of volunteer arrestees to include more physicians and reportedly local politicians.

These actions are unlike any single payer events I have seen. Many of the activists are much younger. There are drums, singers, and street theatre (billionaires for wealthcare). And the message is not muddied by a divided approach between the merits of government financing and a criticism of the status quo. For these events there is one sharp focus, apparently guided by consultation with George Lakoff: private insurance is the real death panel.

With my arrest yesterday, and Dr. Flowers probable arrest today, maybe it is time for our organization to consider a new phase to our advocacy. The image of physicians in white coats being escorted away from insurance offices in handcuffs on a daily basis could bring an unexpected and profound new voice to this reform debate. The voice of physicians like Dr. Hochfeld who are Mad As Hell at how the political process has ignored the heartbreaking reality of our broken healthcare system and refuse to be complicit in the meaningless political solution.

In my case the day was exhilarating. The group of seven entered the Cigna offices lobby and were met by a phalanx of stormtrooper-like officers who blocked our route to the elevators. So we sat in the lobby facing them and with cameras flashing a two hour song and chant filled standoff ensued before we were warned and then briskly handcuffed and carted off to the jail for processing. Four hours later we were released without a bail charge or fine but with a misdemeanor charge for Civilian Arrest Trespassing that will be defended at our court date by volunteer Civil Rights Attorneys.

I will leave to those physicians that are admirably more cautious than I am the job of researching the possible consequences of this misdemeanor if the charges are not dropped, it didn’t matter to me. In my mind I was making the right decision for my patients and for my profession.

It is a personal decision and every physician knows when it’s the right time if ever for them to make that sacrifice. But I believe that a relatively small sacrifice -a few hours, maybe a night in jail- in exchange for broad media exposure to dramatize the profound harm of the private insurance industry on the practice of medicine is an irresistible opportunity.

I would like to report on an encounter with Tea Party people and a semi-town hall meeting with Congressman Dennis Cardoza of the Blue Dog Coalition. There isn’t a formal PNHP chapter here in the conservative San Joaquin Valley town of Merced, California. However, through the Journey for Justice we got wind on short notice of a meeting of the county of Merced supervisors where proposed cuts of the medically indigent program would cut off about half of those already on the program, as well as eliminating dental, eye, and podiatry services for the rest. We managed to delay the inevitable for about a month. However in the process, a doctor read about our testimony, made contact with me, and wrote an excellent op ed on single payer, dovetailing with our proposed Medicare anniversary where we were going to approach Cardoza to support expanded Medicare for all. Her letter brought out some supporters, but also a bunch of elderly irate white citizens who attempted to preempt our picketing of a main thoroughfare near Cardoza’s office. They also barged in on the Congressman’s staff, who thought incorrectly that they were us! Fortunately, I had my life support equipment with me in case one of those elderly counterprotestors collapsed. But they weren’t so appreciative. And luckily I was able to keep my equipment unused for another day.

Through the quick actions of one of our members, the sabotage was averted, and we had our meeting with the Congressman’s staffers, proposing a formal town hall meeting. I won’t belabor you with the content of our presentations, but they were damn good with people talking from the heart about family members dying or suffering from lack of health care. Luckily, we had a young guy make a video of the testimony.

We have had experience earlier in the year with the Congressman when union members of the CSEA and CNA and Health Care Now joined us in a CaPA sponsored meeting with him in Stockton in the futile attempt to get him to sign on as a cosponsor. He had excuses about why he couldn’t support single payer, something about his being on the rules committee being a conflict of interest.

Then the media picked up on the Tea Party people around the country, and Mr. Cardoza started making excuses about why he couldn’t hold a town hall meeting. He did get alot of well deserved flak from all sides, including the general public, and from the local conservative newspaper. He claimed that a phone conference with 4000 people, with no questioning other than for some preselected questions qualified as a town hall meeting. He has generally run unopposed. However, a Republican farmer has announced that he will be running against him in the next election.

Now, out of the blue, Mr Cardoza decided to meet with the local medical society. He actually called that meeting a townhall meeting, although there were only doctors there. There were some vociferous ones against “government run care.” However, there were single payer advocates speaking out too. , The Blue Democrats, which Cardoza represents, are for fiscal responsibility and say they don’t want to be rushed to support a bill that can’t be paid for. It was suggested that perhaps we should go back to the drawing board and include single payer, in the spirit of considering all the options, and particularly since it would save $350 billion. To this Cardoza responded that Congress would never adopt a single payer bill.

There will be at least one town hall meeting held in September, with an empty chair reserved for Congressman Cardoza. A debate will be encouraged, with invitations extended to single payer advocates, public option people, and Tea Party types. I hope to report to you on the results of that meeting.

Lots of activity in the Tampa Bay region. As the battle heats up, I have appeared on WEDU-TV, our local PBS affiliate, for a Special Roundtable presentation on Health Care Reform on 7/17, as well as the “Kathy Fountain Show” on WTVT 13 our local Fox affiliate on 7/29. Yesterday, I was interviewed on WTAN radio in Clearwater for a program focusing on reform efforts. I am also scheduled for another discussion at the University of South Florida in September. More to come as soon as I can take a breath!