Busting Out of the HCAN Straitjacket-- Guest Post From Marcy Winograd

In 2006 DWT supported Marcy Winograd's primary campaign against Blue Dog Jane Harman in Los Angeles' 36th congressional district. On May 9th we announced the good news-- Marcy is running against Harman, the wealthiest member of the House and one of the most insidious defenders of the status quo inside the Democratic caucus, again. Because Marcy has been such a persistent and outspoken opponent of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan-- something we emphasized a few weeks ago in a post called The Importance Of Electing GOOD Democrats Rather Than More Putrid Democrats-- I was delighted when Marcy wrote a guest commentary for us on the health care debate. Marcy's progressive, forward-looking perspective is at great variance with Harman's begrudging minimalist approach that plays into the grasping hands of her Big Business pals but, she hopes, is enough to get her re-elected in an overwhelmingly Democratic district. Here's Marcy's post:


With single-payer virtually off the table in Washington, what's a true believer to do?

Sit on the sidelines and surrender one's power?

Join the Health Care for America Now crowd championing a public option that leaves the insurance industry intact?

Or bust out of the political straitjacket that says there are only two choices:
business as usual or the public option.

I'm busting out, running 6 am - 10 pm cable ads, targeted into my district (CA - 36th CD),challenging my 2010 opponent, Jane Harman, to sign on to Congressman John Conyers' bill, HR 676, for single-payer health care.

The commercial, posted on my campaign web site (and above), shows
me standing in front of Harbor-UCLA Hospital in Torrance. "I'm Marcy Winograd and I'm running for Congress in 2010 to unseat Jane Harman in southern California. But I'm not waiting until 2010 to challenge my opponent. I challenge her right now, in front of this hospital to sign on to the most economic and efficient health care plan ... "

Imagine if a slew of progressive challengers in the 2010 primary stepped forward at this moment, this critical juncture in the health care debate, to broadcast single-payer cable commercials on Olbermann's Countdown or the Rachel Maddow show. Maybe if enough of us were on television, challenging the old guard's dismissal of single-payer, we could force a vibrant debate.

Grassroots activists are certainly eager for one. At a recent HCAN forum sponsored by Congressman Waxman's office at UCLA, single-payers showed up en masse, waiving lime-green (no real significance, just bright) placards championing, "Single-Payer Now!" Every time an HCAN advocate mentioned the public option, up went the placards amid a roar of protest.

Days later Congressman Waxman, once a co-sponsor of the Conyers' bill, reversed his decision not to hold hearings on single-payer.

But all the hearings in the world won't lend legitimacy to single-payer, unless we have a government scoring, a fiscal projection of what single-payer would cost or save. Conveniently enough those who could order a financial analysis, the chairs of the committees of jurisdiction (Budget, Finance, Appropriations, Health, Education, and Welfare, Commerce, Ways and Means) have yet to submit a request.

I know because I called the Congressional Budget Office, left a message requesting a scoring, and received a message on my cell phone from Melissa Merson, the office's Communications Director. In her words, "We are fully aware there are members of the public who would like us to provide a cost estimate of single-payer, but we are inundated with requests from committees of jurisdiction. The priorities are set for us by the congress."

Let the people set the priorities. We should demand an accounting; otherwise we are looking at a public option that, like mandated drivers' insurance, bolsters the profits of the insurance industry while, according to the CBO, leaving 36 million Americans uninsured 10 years from now. With most of the public option money designed to subsidize private insurance policies, we're two steps forward, ten steps back.

Before we hypnotize ourselves to champion a compromise that could, in turn, compromise the ability for states to bypass the feds to form single-payer coalitions, let's put the heat on those committee chairs, not just for the single-payer scoring, but for a new bill that calls for Medicare for All with an Opt Out clause for people just dying to buy private health insurance.