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Ari – i hope you see this comment, because HCAN is a con. i used to think it was just a way to provide electoral support but i was wrong. i’ve been posting about this in the comments at the mothership, maybe i should write a diary about it too. anyway, here is my take, modified from a comment made a few days ago:
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i think we’re going to have to fight the dems on this one – just take a look at the HCAN ads that have been running here and everywhere. while i’m glad they are giving fdl $, they are also selling a big con. as i’ve said before, it’s goal is to manipulate expectations so that party leaders can craft halfway measures that have corporate support (insurance and pharmaceutical companies) without antagonizing the voting public too much. this is the essence of clinton’s third way that has now become so central to Democratic party governance and something that we’ve got to work to change if we’re going to be able to advance workable solutions to the problems we face.
the single payer story is that conyers introduced a bill for single payer in 2003 (38 cosponsors), 2005 (78 cosponsors) and 2007 (93 cosponsors). each time there have been a lot more cosponsors and the work of groups like Healthcare-Now (HC-N!) and Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) have been working for years (HC-N! since 2003 and PNHP since 1987!) to educate and push for single payer was paying off.
but there was a slight problem this year. the democratic presidential candidates proposed health care plans that were a far cry from single payer.
so… a bunch of “progressive” organizations got together and pooled resources ($40 million) to start a “grass roots” campaign they call “Health Care for America NOW!” (HCAN – i’m sure there was no intention to confuse people by choosing a name so similar to the single payer advocates’ organization /s). they came up with a set of “principles” that don’t require single payer and asked us to lobby congress to support it. we did. congress pretended to respond – obama signed up on oct 6. i used to think the whole thing was just a way to give electoral support to dems – but now that all these ads are running after the election i see that’s not the case. this must really be about health care reform – so they can do what they (and their industry supporters) want to do while pretending that they are responding to the people.
the whole thing stinks and a lot of good people got suckered. i hope it isn’t successful in preventing us from advocating for single payer.