Colorado politicians for single-payer

An increasing number of Colorado politicians are going on record for single-payer. Part of this is because of Barry Keene's savvy politicking. Barry, a Republican businessman whose family had a bad experience with the healthcare system, is vice-president of Health Care for All Colorado. As he looked into the systemics of healthcare, he became more and more outraged at its heartlessness and inefficiencies.

Barry tells HCAC members that for all the talk about the fight for single-payer healthcare, the people who will actually be bloodied are the politicians. The insurance industry has not yet put its terrible forces onto the field, but when they do, the pols know perfectly well that it's their jobs that are at risk — not ours.

Barry tells single-payer advocates that their job is to make sure that we create enough deep public support for single-payer that the inevitable propoganda campaign to come won't be effective.

He's very sympathetic to the between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place that is the natural habitat of American politicians.

Two of the candidates for my Colorado House District (HD 9) have shown up at HCAC's monthly Denver meetings. On Saturday one of them, Joe Miklosi, told the 50 attendees that he'd been barraged with stories on healthcare as he's knocked on doors in the district. Most recently, a couple of physicians told him they were planning to stop practicing because of the way the current system works.

The number of docs getting out needs to be documented and publicized.

Joe spoke well. He says the only thing Americans dislike more than a bully is a person who won't stand up for and defend their beliefs.

Let's stand up together for a cost-effective, single payer health care reform plan that lets doctors, nurses, and patients control their health care choices, not an insurance-run system.

We can strengthen families and create secure communities by restoring equal access and opportunity to guaranteed, high quality health care that protects us from the financial ruin of unaffordable health care.