Monday, June 1, 2009

Thousands March for Universal Care in Downtown Seattle




The Seattle Times was there:

The crowd was mostly Democratic, but that didn't stop them from shouting down Sen. Patty Murray's general remarks about the need for health-care reform with a more specific call for a single-payer health-insurance system.

Thousands joined a health-care rally and later a mellow, slow-moving parade in downtown Seattle, complete with belly dancers, drums, air horns, children, bicycles and lots of signs, both mass-produced and hand-drawn.

Many said they wanted a single-payer national health-insurance system — the type of insurance that's widely used in Europe and Canada.

Organizers put the crowd size at 3,500. Seattle police gave an estimate of 2,500 as of 1 p.m. — although the crowd seemed to grow as the day wore on.

More than 190 organizations endorsed the rally, including dozens of unions, women's organizations, health-care workers and churches.

Many protesters said health-care changes are needed now because so many people have no health care, whether that's because their employer no longer offers it, it's too expensive or because they're unemployed.

"The system is broken, and it's going to be so complex to fix it that we might as well tear it up and start over," said Larry Neilson, a Seattle medical transcriptionist, echoing a common sentiment.

"I work in health care, and I can't afford insurance," said Neilson, who came to the rally wearing a doctor's white coat with the whimsical name "Dr. Schlock" embroidered over the pocket.

Protesters pointed out that the country has one of the most expensive health-care systems in the world, but lags behind other countries on such health indicators as the infant-mortality rate.

Typical was a banner several protesters carried that read: "Diagnosis: the greedy health insurers are parasites! The cure? Single payer option."


Power to these people. We need a lot more of this. And Senator Murray needs to commit to a single payer bill like her constituents obviously are, and stop this talk of throwing more money at wasteful private insurance.

I know we have quite a few conservative readers who'd likely worry about the costs of a universal care system, but the fact is that a single payer system would save us a ton of money, and is much more fiscally conservative than what Obama is proposing. The fact is, you'd pay a lot less in taxes to pay for a not-for-profit system than you do in co-pays, premiums, and deductibles under a for-profit health insurance plan.

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