Public 'option': Mad As Hell Doctors front White House for single payer

[Joanne98]

Tue Sep 29, 2009 at 04:27:47 PM PDT

Pissed off after today's Senate Finance Committe markup extravaganza?

How angry are you ?

I mean, pissed off is one thing, but are you 'mad as hell'?

Why not channel some of that energy into some action for real health care reform.

Don't let the public option fanatics here at our beloved Dailykos distract you with taunts that working for single payer national health care makes you a purity troll.

Remember the phrase, Audacity of Hope?

After weeks on the road, zig zagging from Oregon to Washington, DC stumping for national health care, the Mad As Hell Doctors tour will be across the street from the White House Wednesday. Not surprisingly, physicians have also gotten mad over Big Insurance.

divineorder's diary :: :: Mad As Hell Doctors Tour: This fall the rubber gloves hit the road

If you have been following the stories and diaries here you probably remember reading about the approximately 45,000 Americans who die each year because they have no insurance. That Harvard study was commissioned byPhysicians for a National Health Program

Physicians for a National Health Program is a non-profit research and education organization of 17,000 physicians, medical students and health professionals who support single-payer national health insurance.

Among those many health care pros are the Mad As Hell Doctors!

Mad as Hell Docs and friends have zigzagged from Oregon through numerous states to Minnesota, down to Louisiana, up to Illinois, and are now finally taking their message to the White House. Well, really, Lafayette Park. And


Mad As Hell Doctors to Hold Final "White Ribbon Rally" for Single Payer in Washington, D.C. on September 30th

At the conclusion of a highly successful cross-country tour advocating for single payer, the Mad As Hell Doctors will join with their supporters in Washington D.C.'s Lafayette Park.

They have been getting great regional press along the way.

Like the Progressive Caucus, they requested a meeting with the President but were turned down. However, they remain unfazed.

Single Payer has a lot more friends in Washington than the media likes to portray

Dr. Margaret Flowers, one of the "Baucus Eight" arrested in May 2009 for protesting a Senate hearing which excluded single payers advocates from testifying, is helping the Mad As Hell Doctors plan the White Ribbon Rally.
"Single Payer has a lot more friends in Washington than the media likes to portray," says Flowers pointedly. "So I've invited a lot people who would love to the opportunity to demonstrate their support for the movement. People like Rep. John Conyers who cosponsored HR 676, Rep. Eric Massa from New York, Senator Bernie Sanders, Wendell Potter from CMD and others - these are all extremely wise Washington types who understand that single payer in the only honest solution."

Live in the DC area? Mad? Or just want to have fun and promote single payer national healthcare? Either way, you are invited to join the Mad As Hell Doctors:

The Care-A-Van will take place on September 30th, the same day as the White Ribbon Rally, starting in Frederick, MD at 9:30 am with a 10:30am stop in Columbia, MD . From Columbia, the long line of ribbon-decorated cars will press on toward Silver Springs Metro Station. In Silver Springs, the Care-A-Van participants will park their cars and take the Metro to McPherson Square in preparation for their March to Lafayette Park at 3:00pm.

"We're calling the DC event a 'White Ribbon Rally' because one purpose is to launch a new national symbol for the Single Payer Movement - the white ribbon," says Dr. Paul Hochfeld, a Mad As Hell Doctor and one of the group's central organizers. "So we're encouraging attendees to make their own white ribbons and find creative ways to wear them, whether as lapel pins or arm bands or whatever. The point is the same as the Care-A-Van - to have fun and bring it with you."


President Obama, join us out front!

Remember the magic of the Obama for President campaign?

Lets create some more magic, shall we?

Lot's of shit and feathers were stirred today, and some are again asking the President to come out front and lead.


"But the most important reason for the rally is to make good on the promise we announced when the trip began - to put Single Payer back on the table, " Hochfeld remarks ironically, having personally made the choice to place a table on stage during the entire rally.

"Before we left Portland, we requested a meeting with President Obama and he turned us down" Hochfeld continues. "Since then, the White House has received thousands of requests from our supporters asking President Obama to meet with us to discuss single payer. So we're going to have a conference table on stage just in case he's changed his mind. If he wants to join us, he'll be welcome any time."

"We don't imagine he'll show up," says retired radiologist and fellow Mad As Hell Doctor Michael Huntington, "but we still feel strongly that he has an obligation to meet with health care professionals before signing any health care reform legislation. So we'll hold a spot for him at the table and hope for the best. Who knows? He might just surprise us. He's done it before."

Thanks for all the hard work you have been doing on Health Care Reform. After today, think its time to primary some Senate Dems, don't you?

Physicians for a National Health Program want a national single payer system. How about you?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/29/787802/-Public-option:-Mad-As-Hell-Doctors-front-White-House-for-single-payer