[Peace-discuss] Fw: CLNews: Dennis Kucinich on Single Payer Victory in House of Reps Health Care Bill

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: Richard Myers 
To: clnews at lists.clnews.org 
Sent: Saturday, July 18, 2009 9:48 AM
Subject: CLNews: Dennis Kucinich on Single Payer Victory in House of Reps Health Care Bill



Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2009

>From Dennis Kucinich - www.Kucinich.us

Exciting Healthcare Update

Dear Friends,

With your support, your phone calls, your emails, we won a major
legislative victory today for a state single payer health care option
in the House of Representatives in Washington, DC. The House Education
and Labor Committee approved the Kucinich Amendment by a vote of
27-19, with 14 Democrats and 13 Republicans voting yes.

The amendment propels the growing single payer health care movement at
the state level. There are at least ten states which have active
single payer efforts in their legislatures. They are California,
Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Ohio,
Pennsylvania and Washington. The amendment mandates a single payer
state will receive the right to waive the application of the Employee
Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which has in the past been
used to nullify efforts to expand state or local government health
care.

Under the Kucinich Amendment a state's application for a waiver from
ERISA is granted automatically if the state has signed into law a
single payer plan. With the amendment, for the first time, the state
single payer health care option is shielded from an ERISA-based legal
attack. Now that the underlying bill has been passed, as amended, by
the full committee, we must make sure that Congress knows that we want
the provision kept in the bill at final passage!

The state single payer option was one of five major amendments which I
obtained support to get included in HR3200. One amendment brings into
standard coverage for the first time complementary and alternative
medicine, (integrative medicine). Another amendment drives down the
cost of prescription drugs by ending pharmaceutical industry's sharp
practices manipulating physician prescribing habits. An amendment
stops the insurance industry from increasing premiums at the time when
people are not permitted to change health plans; and finally an
amendment imposing a requirement on insurance companies that they
disclose the cost of advertising, marketing and executive compensation
expenses (which generally divert money from patient care).

Please make sure you post this message on your social networking site,
ask all your friends to get involved and encourage everyone you know
to sign up at www.Kucinich.us so we can build full momentum behind
this movement for real health care.

Let's do this!
Dennis

(hat tip to David Anderson)
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