Activists tell Eshoo: Families Before Fat Cats!

Excerpts from the letter delivered to Congresswoman Eshoo and signed by Carole Dorshkind, Chair of San Mateo County Democracy for America (SMCDFA):

[We] ask that you speak out to your colleagues in Congress to insist that single payer healthcare advocates be included in all future congressional healthcare roundtablee and hearings and be allowed to testify. ....we are deeply disappointed that advocates for publicly financed Medicare-style healthcare were excluded from the Senate Finance Committee roundtables held on May 5 and 12. ...We support Governor Howard Dean's position that any plan passed at the national level must at a minimum level have a true single payer style public option.

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SMCDFA Healthcare Task Force member Gail Sredanovic spoke to the press saying:

"I am deeply concerned to see how Single Payer healthcare advocates have been excluded from roundtables in Congress and even ARRESTED when they attempt to speak out. We are asking Congresswoman Eshoo to insist that they be included in all such discussions and ensure that any public option meets the criteria of Medicare, as Howard Dean proposes. The American people want Single Payer care, as shown in a recent poll by Lake Research Partners' on behalf of Health Care for American Now (HCAN). This and other studies show that voters support having the guaranteed coverage that a public healthcare plan provides and, furthermore, they believe that a public healthcare plan will help contain costs in ways that for-profit insurers have failed to do."

San Mateo County Democracy for America will sponsor a Healthcare Forum on June 6. One of the keynote speakers will be State Senator Mark Leno. Sen. Leno will speak in support of a proposal for healthcare reform he strongly believes in and co-sponsored, the California Universal Healthcare Act (SB 810). This measure proposes a Single-Payer model in which the state controls the payment of health care providers. Such a measure has twice been passed in the California State Legislature, only to be vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger.

THE HEALTHCARE FORUM , WHICH IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, WILL TAKE PLACE ON SAT, JUNE 6.

San Mateo City Council Chambers
330 W 20th Ave, San Mateo
9:30 to 1:00pm

For more information about the forum and to confirm late breaking details, visit http://www.smcdfa.org.