By Don McCanne
August 25, 2014
This weekend numerous organizations dedicated to single payer reform assembled in Oakland, California for the 2014 National Strategy Conference. Participating organizations included Healthcare NOW!, Labor Campaign for Single-Payer Healthcare, One Payer States, National Nurses United, Physicians for a National Health Program, Progressive Democrats of America, and many others. So what was accomplished?
Above all, just gathering dedicated single payer supporters together in a single weekend meeting provided renewed energy and passion amongst the attendees, confirming that the single payer movement is not only still alive, it is thriving. We have a future.
Did we develop a national strategy that will culminate in enactment of single payer reform with the installation of a new government after the 2016 elections? Well, not exactly, but nobody expected that. What we did accomplish was the sharing of ideas on strategy, policy, politics, single payer education, state and federal legislation, and innumerable other components of a social movement that would lead to single payer.
In both the formal sessions and in informal conversations there was a very broad spectrum of ideas discussed, though not all of the ideas mesh well. And this is from a solid core of single payer activists. But all views were expressed with the intent of advancing health care justice.
Others attending will certainly have different take-home points, but mine was that we each should continue to do what we are doing while helping to open new avenues in advancing the cause. Especially helpful would be efforts to educate others, expand grassroots efforts, and work to form coalitions with other social justice organizations.
There was a consensus that we should not waste time and squander energy by becoming divided over process. We need to direct that energy to making progress towards our goal of a single payer national health program – an improved Medicare for all.
