The US Senate healthcare reform process is clearly off the rails, with proposals being thrown about willy-nilly. Meanwhile, an elegant, efficient, and politically expedient amendment awaits its vote: The Medicare-for-all, single-payer Sanders Amendment No. 2837 should have gone before the body for debate last weekend.
Funny thing, though. In spite of Sen. Harry Reid’s statement that he would get to amendments "in numeric order," the Sanders amendment keeps getting bypassed. Senator Reid gave no explanation for this.
We’ve been through this before. We had promises from the House leadership that the Weiner Amendment for single-payer would receive a full debate and go to a vote. We know how that worked out. Senator Reid must follow through on his promise to hold the debate this Tuesday as promised!
Unless we act now, Senator Reid can easily argue that he’s skipping over this amendment due to a lack of public hue and cry. We can’t let this happen.
Tell Senator Reid in no uncertain terms that a full debate and vote on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Amendment No. 2837 is absolutely essential.
Senator Sanders’ amendment, cosponsored by Sens. Sherrod Brown and Roland Burris, gives states the power to enact single-payer programs with federal funding. It has everything a state single-payer bill needs: one plan that covers health, mental, dental, vision, and long-term care.
Right now the Congressional Budget Office is scoring a plan to establish private, nonprofit health insurance programs run by private companies, with a trigger for a new government insurance plan if the private plans are not "acceptable."
Let the American people decide what’s "acceptable" before everything falls to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and their influence over the Senate. Tell Harry Reid that this amendment matters.
Make the calls to Sen. Harry Reid TONIGHT:
- Washington, D.C., office: 202.224.3542
- Las Vegas, NV, office: 702.388.5020
- U.S. Capitol Switchboard: 202.224.3121
In solidarity,
National Nurses United
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