Breaking News: Single Payer Health Care Activists Score MAJOR victory

Breaking News!


Ok, single-payer nation (and Mike in the Morning early-adopter radio show fans) you get to exchange high-fives all around. After months of non-stop activism to get Single Payer on the table, the Speaker of the House has agreed (in principle) to allow a vote on a single-payer option to come to a floor vote.

Apparently vote will take place after the August recess (ie after Labor Day)

http://www.demconwatchblog.com/diary/2103/single-payer-to-get-floor-vote
Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 16:16:59 PM EDT
As part of the deal cut today relative to the House Health Care bill, there will be a separate floor vote on Single Payer, we just don't know when.
Pelosi has promised she will schedule a floor vote on a system of single-payer, government-run health care to provide coverage for all Americans, a Democratic aide said Friday.
Remember, the deal in Energy and Commerce only affects the one committee. The Health Care bill has passed the other two committees. Therefore, there will be a lot of horse trading before things come to a full House vote.
Update: I heard a rumour, and I don't know how true it is, but the person who told me is generally very reliable. What he said was that staffers for John Conyers indicated to him that while Single Payer would not pass the floor vote, they were hoping that having the floor vote, and the pressure from the left that goes with it, will ensure the inclusion of a public option.
The public option will allow individual states to opt-out of the Federal program if the state has a program in place. The hope is that Single Payer passes in one state. The state with the highest probability of that is Pennsylvania, as there is already legislation in both the Assembly and the State Senate.

If this happens, then Single Payer would spread until it became the system used throughout most of the nation. This would be strictly predicated on economics, and improvements in patient care. It might not even take that much longer to implement over a nationwide approach, as getting the system in place in multiple states can occur concurrently.
The point about the floor vote is that it's time to start calling and writing, and saying "What I want most is Single Payer, but if I can't have that, I want a public option."
Update 2: I received a call back from the Speaker's office. The floor vote will be held after the August recess, so we've got August to put pressure on all the reps!