5-07-07, 9:31 am

WASHINGTON (PAI)--An influential lawmaker in the new House Democratic majority urged advocates of government-run single-payer universal health care coverage to concentrate on kids’ care first.

Speaking to a jammed hearing room on Capitol Hill--including members of the Steel Workers and other unions that back single-payer--Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) said they should throw their energy into this year’s fight to renew and expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

That fight, he said, “is spring training” for the coming battle over health care for all.

The advocates gathered April 24 to back and lobby for HR 676, the universal health care bill authored by veteran Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), who moderated the session. His bill would establish a government-run health care system based on Medicare, while abolishing the private insurance companies and their massive overhead.

Emanuel said “in the present political environment,” single-payer health care will not pass and faces a foe in the White House, George W. Bush. And since Emanuel ran the House Democrats’ campaign committee last election season and is now Democratic Conference Chair, he urged the advocates to get out and campaign for a Democratic president next year, besides Democratic lawmakers.

That left the fight over children’s health insurance, which covers 9 million uninsured kids now and could cover 6 million more, Emanuel said. In return for seeking their support, he pledged to back a big change in the U.S. health care system.

“I’m for changing from our present private insurance system to a public one, because that’s the only one that controls costs,” Emanuel told the crowd. “Staying with an employer-based delivery system has too many inefficiencies to get you the coverage you want at the cost you can afford.”

Speakers laid out the advantages of single-payer health care over both the present system and competing legislation, including the Medicare-for-all bill recently endorsed by the AFL-CIO. They said a government-run system would eliminate the insurance companies’ profits and overhead, which they estimated take up to 40 percent of the $2 trillion the U.S. spends annually on health care.

They also said that a government-run system would restore to individuals their choices of doctors and hospitals, rather than leaving them at the mercy of the insurers. And it would cut down on the financial hardships and bankruptcies caused by huge medical bills that insurers saddle customers with, after denying care.

From International Labor Communications Association

| | |