Health Care Reform Advocates to Bring “Medicare for All” Single Payer Message to Senators Feinstein and Boxer

NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Carl Manaster
Phone: 858-336-4802
Email: manaster@pobox.com
Date: July 6th, 2009


Health Care Reform Advocates to Bring “Medicare for All” Single Payer Message to Senators Feinstein and Boxer

(San Diego, CA) – Declaring that “Health Care is a Human Right,” a group of San Diego activists will deliver signed petitions demanding real health care reform to the offices of Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer on Thursday, July 9th at 12:00pm and 12:45, respectively.

Health care reform is at the top of the agenda in Congress this summer, and noting that the United States spends twice as much as other industrialized nations on health care ($7,129 per capita), yet compares poorly in terms of outcomes and coverage, health care activists in the San Diego community are demanding significant reforms. “We could not only improve the quality of health care delivered, with the money saved on overhead and profit, we could cover 45 million more people, effectively bringing America into the league,” commented Carl Manaster, a member of the San Diego Single Payer Health Care Coalition. “It’s all about conservatively allocating the resources we already spend.”
Neither Senator Feinstein nor Senator Boxer have advocated for a publicly-funded, privately-delivered national health care plan, such as that envisioned in Senate Bill 703, introduced by Sen. Sanders (I-VT). Manaster and members of national groups MoveOn and Democracy for America hope to show the California Senators just how strong the support is for a national health coverage plan, delivering signed petitions to Senator Feinstein’s office at 750 B Street in San Diego at noon on Thursday. A companion rally is planned nearby outside Senator Barbara Boxer’s San Diego office, at 600 B Street.

“We are talking about taking the sort of guaranteed, single-payer health care system, like that which America’s veterans have for their health care through the Veterans Administration, and broadening it to cover the entire nation. This not a radical proposal – this is simply about expanding opportunity and access, and smart use of limited resources,” said Mike Copass, a former Congressional candidate and leader of the local chapter of Progressive Democrats of America.

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