– By Mary Johnson, CFP

The Coalition for People (CFP), like many other groups and individuals, has been watching, with increasing horror, the healthcare “debate” taking place in Congress, the White House and town meetings. Record-breaking amounts of money have already been spent to promote lies about “public options” and to suppress any mention of single payer healthcare.

CFP members are angry and hope PAR readers are, too. When you are angry, you are no longer paralyzed by horror. You can take action. CFP urges you, and everyone you know, to contact Senators Dodd and Lieberman and Representative DeLauro (see p. 1 for telephone numbers).

Tell them you want and need universal, comprehensive, single payer healthcare for yourself and everyone living in the U.S.A. Many politicians hope their constituents do not understand single payer plans, so they can justify their rejection of the concept with myths like “disruptive,” “government run,” “rationing” and “long waiting periods.” So it is very important to let them know that you do understand as follows:

Universal healthcare means that everyone living in the U.S.A. must have the same high-quality healthcare, pre-natal to end of life. It must be comprehensive, which means it should provide all medically necessary care. Finally, instead of the hundreds of insurance companies currently involved, there would be only one, the government. Administrative costs would drop from 30 percent to about 4 percent; there would be no co-pays or bills and many trees would be saved.

As Frederick Douglass said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand.” The only way we can overcome the influence of money is by demanding what we want, in great numbers.

Healthcare is a right, not a privilege.