Reply #6: Ask These Reps to Oppose Healthcare Bill Unless States Rights (Single-Payer) Language Restored

[slipslidingaway]

Thanks for posting

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/letstatesdoit


"...What if there were something far less controversial than the public option that could bring healthcare to far more people? And what if this something had already passed in committee and been unceremoniously stripped out of the bill without a fight? Would it be worth a winnable fight right now to put this measure back in?

When the first state passes single-payer healthcare, none of the other 49 states will lose anything they've gained through Congress. But the lucky state whose legislature tries to do something more won't see any immediate benefit, because the insurance companies will sue. And there are federal laws that may allow such suits to prevail and deny states the right to provide their residents with healthcare.

Last July the House Committee on Education and Labor voted 25 to 19, with bipartisan support, to pass an amendment proposed by Congressman Dennis Kucinich to waive federal restrictions and allow states to provide healthcare if they choose. Nothing in any other versions of the healthcare bill from other committees conflicted with this language, but it was quietly removed nonetheless. (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the White House told her to remove it.) And the Senate bill added language forbidding state healthcare solutions through 2017, and not - despite what the President told Kucinich - including the waivers that had been in Kucinich's amendment.

Republicans can be expected to vote No on any healthcare bill, no matter how limited or corrupt. But these 14 Democrats voted yes in committee on the Kucinich Amendment:

...

Their work was rudely ignored. If they could be moved to withhold their support for a healthcare bill until it reinstates the missing amendment, progressives would find a voice and a lever of power, and the campaign for healthcare reform would be energized in those areas where it has a chance of truly transformational change, namely in the states.

Contact these 14 congress members with the phone numbers and website forms above.

What we are asking for: Please oppose the health insurance reform bill unless the amendment you voted for and passed in committee last July 17th is reinstated, permitting states to enact healthcare reforms if they choose to..."