When Even a Corrupt Senator Cares About Constituents

How stirring it was to see Mitch McConnell stand in the Well of the Senate and demand single-payer healthcare for the Eastern Kentucky communities ravaged by coal mining, because only single-payer is powerful and inexpensive enough .... oh, wait.

Kay Tillow at Firedoglake:

In 2009 when the Washington beltway was tied up with the health care reform tussle, Montana Democratic Senator Max Baucus, chairman of the all powerful Senate Finance Committee, said everything was on the table–except for single payer. When doctors, nurses and others rose in his hearing to insist that single payer be included in the debate, Baucus had them arrested. As more stood up, Baucus could be heard on his open microphone saying, “We need more police.”

Yet when Senator Baucus needed a solution to a catastrophic health disaster in Libby, Montana, and surrounding Lincoln County, he turned to the nation’s single payer healthcare system, Medicare, to solve the problem.

Baucus’ problem was caused by a vermiculite mine that had spread deadly airborne asbestos killing hundreds and sickening thousands in Libby and northwest Montana. The W. R. Grace Company that owned the mine denied its connection to the massive levels of mesothelioma and asbestosis and dodged responsibility for this environmental and health disaster. When all law suits and legal avenues failed, Baucus turned to our country’s single payer plan, Medicare.

The single payer plan that Baucus kept off the table is now very much on the table in Libby. Unknown to most of the public, Baucus inserted a section into the health reform bill that covers the suffering people of Libby, Montana, not just the former miners but the whole community—all covered by Medicare.

They don’t have to be 65 years old or more.

They don’t have to wait until 2014 for the state exchanges.

No ten year roll out—it’s immediate.

They don’t have to purchase a plan—this is not a buy-in to Medicare—it’s free.

They don’t have to be disabled for two years before they apply.

They don’t have to go without care for three years until Medicaid expands.

They don’t have to meet income tests.

They don’t have to apply for a subsidy.

They don’t have to pay a fine for failure to buy insurance.

They don’t have to hope that the market will make a plan affordable.

They don’t have to hide their pre-existing conditions.

They don’t have to find a job that provides coverage.

Baucus inserted a clause in the Affordable Care Act to make special arrangements for them in Medicare, and he didn’t wait for any Congressional Budget Office scoring to do it.

Read the whole thing.
And so all the supposed arguments against single-payer collapse. Senators, representatives, lobbyists and presidents all know the truth: only single-payer - Medicare for all - can solve our deficit-exploding national healthcare crisis.

Thus only one reason to oppose it: campaign contributions from Big Insurance.