Please Support Sen. Bernie Sanders' Single-Payer Amendments

Use the form below to automatically send a letter supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders' single-payer amendments to your U.S. senators. We have sample text already in place, but feel free to modify it (e.g. by adding some details of your own experience or locale). After you have entered in your address information (so we know which senators to send your letter to), just click "Send My Message."

May 19, 2013

Subject:

Dear Senator,

I write to urge your support for Senator Bernie Sanders’ single-payer amendments to the Senate Health Bill.

Sen. Sanders has stated that he will introduce two amendments to the reconciled Senate Health Bill. One will be based on S. 703, the “American Health Security Act.” This bill would create a national single-payer program to provide comprehensive health care coverage for all of the 46 million Americans who currently lack coverage, and would improve benefits for all Americans by eliminating co-pays and deductibles.

Sen. Sanders’ second amendment to the final health care bill is based on S. 898, “States' Right to Innovate in Health Care Act.” This amendment would allow states the right to implement a single-payer system that provides health coverage similar to the care provided under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan.

Single payer is a superior reform to the present House and Senate legislation in many ways:

* Single payer would provide universal and comprehensive coverage for all medically necessary services. Unamended, the present legislation in the Senate would leave 24 million uninsured and tens of millions more with skimpy coverage.

* Single payer allows patients free choice of doctor and hospital. The present Senate bill maintains the role of insurance companies that continue to deny care and restrict access to services.

* Single payer pays for itself by eliminating $400 billion in insurance company administrative waste and redirecting it to care. The Senate bill is expected to cost nearly $1 trillion over the next decade.

* Single payer establishes proven and effective cost-containing mechanisms to ensure that benefits are sustainable over the long run. The Senate bill lacks effective cost controls.

Sen. Sanders’ amendments present a historic opportunity for members to register their support for single-payer national health insurance as the best way to solve the U.S. health care crisis.

While I recognize the urgency of enacting health care reform, it is important to remember that the purpose of reform is to ease the burden for all Americans. Only a single-payer health program can meet that test—both medically and economically. Sen. Sanders’ single-payer amendments deserve your vote.

Sincerely,

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