Single payer works in all industrialized countries with better and less expensive results. Presently we have rationing by costs. To those who made the comments that we can't afford to have single payer I ask you can we afford health insurance CEO's receiving a $1.1 billion golden parachute? This is after he was let go for back dating stock options in order to gain over $1.6 billion dollars. If you don't beleive me google William McGuire former of CEO of United Health. Can we afford paying a CEO that much money , even when found guilty of questionable ethics?
Don't try to scare me neigh sayers. When I voice my opinion many people try to scare me, They tell me all types of horror stories. When I ask them where the heard these stories, they are usually 3rd or 4th party stories. When I tell them that I lived in Belgium, used the health care over there. Never once waited for a doctors appointment more than 24 hours. The doctor even made house calls. Had emergency surgeries. Waited even less than 12 hours. Never went bankrupt, never denied care. Now I am trying to move back to Belgium. Anyone want to purchase a home in Colorado?

Medicine for profit is criminal.  Single payer(the government) national health care, as in all the other industrial countries, is only way.  
As long as insurance companies are running the show even standardized forms will be used to exclude and exploit. This is murder for profit.

Donna, you were powerful on The Journal last week! I had not really understood single payer, but you explained it so well. I'm behind you, girl!!

I am with you. I will do all I can to see that we get single-payer medical care. Thanks for fighting on behalf of all of us. We will succeed.

Why are so many in the Obama Administration saying "No we can't" to single payer? I am proud of my (Iowa) Congressman, Dave Loebsack, for co-sponsoring John Conyer's HR 676. Call or email your congressperson. I say, "Yes we can." Let's all say "yes we can" to single payer affordable Medicare for all. Let's say "yes" to taking the cost of health care out of our goods and services, the weight of which is a blow to their competitiveness in the global economy. Let's say "yes" to removing the considerable cost of local government's health care from our property taxes. Let's say "yes" to 50 million people who want coverage but are forced to go to emergency rooms, thereby running up medical costs for those who are insured. Let's say yes to our consciences which are appealing to us to stop abandoning these 50 million people who are fellow human beings and are our friends and relatives. Let's stop saying "no we can't." Yes we can. Yes we can!

thank you Donna for having the guts to speak for all of us who want a single payer health insurance. For years I felt cowed by those who labeled single payer as socialized medicine. Now, with your help, more people are speaking out. Let's hope that tyhe 100th monkey principle will hold. That is, enough people speaking out may reach a critical mass for change.

I am for single payer medical system. I was told it will never be. I would like to prove the person who said that wrong.

Dear Donna,
I'm glad to know that Senator Baucus was the third highest recipient of health care monies. That's the sort of thing newspaper readers should know, even if the info comes via Letters to the Editor. Thanks.

I cannot thank you enough for presenting this show on Single Payer. As an advocate of same and a family doctor, I am wholeheartedly convinced that single payer is the only feasible way out of this shattered, greed-driven system we call healthcare in our country.

Keep up the good work!!! And I'll keep working on this too.

Great show! The richest nation in the world and the most fearful. Go broke on health care for all? How is it that you don't hear complains about war spending, tax cuts for the super wealthy, bail out Wall
street, etc. ? I've lived in countries with National Health systems where people get good health care and aren't financially ruined by expenses incurred when sick. It seems that Americans have been brainwashed by the economic system.

99 percent of American families are playing Russian roulette with our medical health, our financial solvency, and our futures, when our health care is administered and held hostage by insurance corporations and the business decisions of employers.

You and I don't need insurance industry executives and employers (who we can't even vote for or against) making the health care decisions for our families, on the basis of their corporate bottom line.
What we need is for our doctors (selected by us, not by the insurance company or the boss) to make those decisions with no one but us.

The people don't need no stinkin health insurance.
What we need is good, comprehensive health care, guaranteed for all.
Nobody out. Everybody in. It's just that simple. And it even costs less than the mess we got.

Let's get heatlthcare for all of our people!

Thank you Donna, Bill Moyers, and all of the folks working for single payer health insurance!!!

Most everyone knows the system is broken. They know about the greed. They know what HMO’s do. They know the out of pocket costs keep going up. They know CEO’s are making abdominal profits. They know that health care costs are soaring. They could have gone to see Sicko, watch The Ed Show, Bill Moyers. Where is everybody?

I applaud Donna and every single doctor, nurse, PA, and every other individual who is a working health care provider that stands up and calls out for Single Payer. For this too is my passion, and it is daunting.
Crowds in front of state capitols and in Washington DC should be 10,000 and more. Again, where is everybody? 60 million people believe and think, so where are they?

Insurance companies are the world's largest casinos. The insured make bets (their premiums) against a jackpot (the claim). The insurance companies know all the odds. Seems simple.

Bur the common misconception is that the insurance companies would want payouts small. While this may be true in individual cases, it really isn't true overall, for a very basic reason: Suppose that a casino is runs the same game at three different tables. At the first table, the player bets $1, hoping to win $10. At the second table, the player bets $10 against a $100 prize. And at the third table, the ante is $100 against a $1,000 payout. Which of the three tables is the house making more money on? Obviously, it's the higher-stakes game.

So it is to the insurance companies' advantage if the stakes in the game are as high as possible because, all odds being equal, their profit margin gives them much more money in the "high-stakes" game. Therefore, they actually want medical procedures and associated costs to be as high as possible. The odds of the game don't change; they simply mark the premiums up proportionately, and make more money as a result.

And the medical providers and suppliers certainly don't mind being encouraged to charge higher and higher prices. With such common interests and cooperation between the two industries, costs have been spiraling up and up to where they have become astronomically high.

Yet when asked why it's all so expensive, both answer that it's because of the free care they give out to those who can't pay. It's as if they're charging $10 for a band-aid, claiming that giving 1 in 5 away forces them to charge such a high price for those they sell. Their inflated math "justifies" $40 for the other 4 band-aids, and allows then a $10 tax deduction for their "loss." They then brag about how generous they were giving away $10 in care, and ask for our sympathy.

Health insurance in America is the same racket that Al Capone imposed upon people in Chicago. The only difference is that his "accidents" were staged by his henchmen, while insurance companies don't need to bother; the accidents happen without their help. But it's the very same game, with the insurance companies, health care providers, and pharmaceutical industries making astronomical fortunes off of the misery of honest, but unlucky people, who are forced to pay rich middlemen standing between them and the care they desperately need.

Single payer or affordable and universal health care is alive in well in all the so-called developed countries of the world--except the United States. Is single-payer broke in Canada? Is nationalized medical care broke in England, France, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands. The only broken health care system is in the United States where for-profit insurers thrive by denying care and some 48 millions residents have no health insurance. Health care is a right. Affordable health care for every resident of the United States can only be achieved by eliminating the private sector, which is profit driven and is successful only if deprives us of health care.

Single payer is right! The Nurses are right! The Doctors are right! Most of the people are right! Insurance companies are wrong! Greed and profits are wrong! The companies with the most lobbyists and most highly paid lobbyists are wrong! The Congress, continually burdened by having to raise campaign funds, is wrong! Let this not be the government of the people, by and for the special interests; That is wrong! Let this be the government of, by and for the people; That is right! Enact single payer1 That is right!

AE, in case YOU haven't heard, the current situation is bankrupting America, and healthcare is already being rationed based on who can afford it. "Free market competition" is a myth. If it were a free market, we'd let the Chinese open franchised clinics here. It's very simple: we cannot afford both the actual cost of healthcare, and the insurance companies' skyscrapers and fortunes. One or the other has to be cut. As long as the insurance companies are in charge, with their lobbyists paying our politicians hundreds of millions of dollars to keep things the way they are, which one is going suffer? Liberal or conservative has nothing to do with it, it's basic math. Other civilized countries who haven't had the money to burn that Americans have had until now, figured this out a long time ago, and have dealt with it. Now we have to.

Thank you so much! Insurance companies have raped the public for long enough. I support single-payer. Whos' listening to us?

The fact that the US Congress will not honestly debate this issue is an outrage. If THIS congress is unwilling to embrace democracy then we need to take democracy into the streets as these dedicated health care professionals are doing. God bless them.

You were terrific Donna, so calm and clear about the issues involved. Thank you for being so brave and being a true voice for single-payer health care. The two doctors who were interviewed were also very well-spoken.
Mary

Good for Bill Moyers! Thanks, Donna, for all you do. You are an inspiration to us all. Greetings from your friends in Denver. We miss you!

More bogus propaganda generated by dupes for the American Medical Association. Our health care system costs 1 trillion dollars a year more than it should. Nurses and doctors want to keep their high paying jobs that make them an elite class in our society. Doctor practices have become multi-million dollar corporations that treat and charge us based on their financial needs, not our health needs. Insurance companies should be regulated by national standards and a limit should be made on how much they can profit. At the same time doctors need to start being held accountable to stop charging so much money for a health care system that is broken and destroying our economy.

Baloney! sorry, Tom. the problem lies with giant insurance and drug companies, not with doctors and nurses

Those Doctors who work only for the money are pricing themselves out of the market now. I don't know how many times I have NOT gone to the Doctor when I needed to, just because I knew that the price would be ridiculous! NObody goes to the doctor anymore because they can no longer affort to. What these doctors do then is to charge the people who simply have no choice 3 times as much to recover what they lost in fees by people who just stayed home instead of going.

How dare they arrest ANYONE in this demonstration. This is a democracy, and our people have the right to express their beliefs. The Congress is elected to listen and to enact law that responds to the needs and rights of the people.

The demonstrators are absolutely right. And the Congress needs to remember what their responsibility is. This is a public scandal, and we should be ashamed of ourselves. Other countries in the world give better health care than we do. Than us--the United States! How can this be happening?

Single-payer needs to pass. Now.

Thank you Donna! Imagine people before profits; what a concept, eh? The healthcare industry is a runaway train fueled with the pain of Americans. Some people still believe the propaganda that with single-payer healthcare we won't get good care. When insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies DETERMINE (through their lobbyists) what care is administered and how it is administered, there can be no good to come of it. They are not healthcare professionals.

Congresspersons who take donations from the healthcare lobby should be booted out of office post haste!

Donna,
You were brilliant!
I work at a hospital and mentioned to the COO that everyone should watch the movie SICKO by Michael Moore. Too bad Michael has been demonized by the Cons...
I pray the same doesn't happen to you.
My Democratic Representative, Joe Donnelly, admitted on stage that he luckily hadn't seen any Michael Moore movies because he didn't want to defend him. Shows how the Repugs are still winning the argument. Scaring people from even seeing what other alternatives might be available.
God bless you for speaking truth to power, keep fighting-you're not alone!
We need single-payer universal healthcare!
Peace,
TH

We, The People, LIVE, LABOR, BUILD, DEFEND and DIE for this country.
The Billionaires and Trillionaires took their skyscrapers AND their BILLIONS from US.
WE are the SOURCE of their possessions and their wealth.

All we ask is that they not poison and cripple us and then deny us medical attention.

WELL SAID.........................I'M IN COMPLETE AGREEMENT.

Finally I understand what Single Payer means. The first I head of it was from Hillary Clinton when she was running for the president. Why didn't she explain it then? I may well have voted for her if I had understood. President Obama REAL CHANGE, remember? Single Payer is what I favored all along- I just didn't know what it was called. DO NOT drop the ball on this one. DO NOT let the lobbyist call this shots on this one or I will campaign and vote for someone who will. That will be Hillary I suspect. It won't be you. This is about much more that health care, it's about taking the country back from special interest and that's what you promised us. The same goes for congress. Someone MUST step up and represent the People.

Although I supported Hillary for president she did not support single-payer health care. In fact, she made it a point to distance herself from the whole concept. It's Kucinich who wanted the non for profit approach. All Obama is trying to do is put minimum regultions on the HMOs which will only do so much!

What a great and informative show. We as a country must come together and rid ourselves of the mechanisms that keep us from being a true democracy---the greedy are not the last word! Thank you to the participants and to Bill Moyers for always seeking the truth.

Donna,

You were terrific on Bill Moyers. You're terrific in general--thanks for all you and Larry have sacrificed in order to move this issue forward. History will remember you as a fierce advocate for the public good.

Single payer or any other nationalized plan will bankrupt America and create rationed care. There is no case to be made for this. Free market competition will create an affordable health care option. In case you haven't heard, MEDICARE IS BROKE! Single payer will do nothing to make the health care system fair or efficient. This is a liberal pipedream!

AE, all the clients of Medicare are the elderly and disabled. These are people private insurers won't cover or will do everything they can to prevent having to cover them. Medicare is in trouble because of the Part D drug program that is nothing but a giveaway to pharmaceuticals and insurers. Also, because of pressure from lobbyiests and free-marketeers, Medicare contracts out to Blue Cross which is economically inefficient. Of course, corporate media would like you to believe that Medicare is economically unsound.

No for-profit company wants to insure sick people, but those are the people who really need health care.

A really free market is a pipe dream because always, always some company will become very large and powerful and then begin to manipulate the government to help them become even more rich and powerful. The invisible hand is just that--invisible with no visible affects on powerful businesses.

This comment is so factually challenged it should be removed.

It's easy to make an unsupported statement - where are YOUR facts to back up this ridiculous statement? Your post above claiming the problem is high paid doctors and nurses is just plain ridiculous. Doctors and nurses are doing their jobs and deserve to be well paid. What are the criminal health care executives contributing? Nothing - they are ripping off the system at the cost of people's lives. And why should stockholders make a profit off health care, there is no justification for that. You do not have the capacity for critical thinking.

AE,while you were apparently asleep for the past 30 years, we have tried treating health care as a free market product. The free market has brought us to the disastrous situation we have now. Single-payer will redirect a lot of money now going to profits, marketing, lobbying, and intense fights to deny care(which is the sensible thing for a for-profit insurance company to do) -- it will redirect that money to health care.

And rationing? How do you define that? We ration health care now in a tragically unfair way, by the luck of financial status. Try talking about rationing to all the people denied treatments they need by insurers, and all the people who watch loved ones die because of those denials.

The system is already on the way to bankruptcy thanks to the insurance companies greed. NO ONE should make money off of sick people. The job of insurence companies is to make money they do that by NOT providing care to those who need it. WAKE UP.

I only saw about half of this broadcast because my local PBS station cut it off! We had a black screen for about 15 minutes and then a movie started running. I am quite sure this was on purpose and I intend on finding out. The Station was KRCB out of Cotati, California 94928.

Yes! My station was blacked out. I never got to see Donna. I live in San Francisco, same station. Tell me it's not sabotage. Donna (and all) you are in my thoughts every minute. Thank you. Greg

I am so sorry to hear your health care nightmare, what you all are doing is amazing and I am with you on single-payer. It's a sad day in America when Profit Care is more important than Patient Care. I know, I've seen, I've lived and am still haunted by what is deemed, defended and supported in Tennessee and Virginia as "THE ACCEPTABLE STANDARDS OF HEALTH CARE", it's nothing at all like the health care system misleads us in slick TV ads, infomercials and billboard to believe is their quality health care. It even took the hospital three years to disparage and prove their own advertising is/was fraudulent, false and misleading. It is all on public record for anyone to see in Greeneville, TN Federal Court. Case no. 2:04-cv-375. http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=62 Another concern I have is with all the MRSA/VRE our health care system is breeding and dumping into our communities, the very health care system we believed in and trusted is killing us ! Children should not be infected with this disease, I've asked and asked how many more will have to get/die from MRSA/VRE before something is done to address the issue. You get either an excuse, passed on to someone else or no reply at all. You represented us wonderfully on Moyer's program, surely we will get some traction. We need a cure for health care stat !

God bless you for your courage and determination. The truth will prevail!

A fantastic interview! You are amazing!!

We need to plan a National Sit-In at all Federal buildings that house our congressional representatives. We need volunteers who are willing to be arrested. And we need to keep up the pressure on Congress until we win.

That was a great interview! It made me more than ever convinced that we need a Single Payer system and we in order to get it, we need to raise consciousness about it with the general public. People need to speak out loud and clear and convince their representatives that they need to find a way to make it a reality. Of course the healthcare industry will fight it tooth and nail, and Congress unfortunately will continue to go along unless we hammer it home that the people want Single Payer, and we vote. It will probably take quite awhile-- I'm afraid to even expect it in my lifetime (I'm 54), but I hope I'm wrong about that.

Single payer system is the only intelligent solution to the health care quagmire we all navigate in this country!

Donna -- thank you so very much for all your hard work and stick-to-it-ivness despite the slings and arrows shot by the know-nothings -- and others who know better but choose to pretend they don't know. You are a brave and gorgeous woman. Bless you and yours! Maddi Breslin

KQED had a blackout also for the last segment of the Bill Moyer's "Single Payer" program last night, May 22,2009 . I'm going to call them on Tuesday to find out why this happened and request that this very important program be repeated at a convenient hour (with no technical glitches!). All 3 speakers, Donna Smith, R.N., Drs Himmelstein and Wolfe were wonderful...articulate and convincing and it is vital for the public to hear their arguments for the necessity of having a "Single Payer" solution on the table for all to hear.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Donna for your strong voice,!I believe the vast majority of Americans want single payer health care free of insurance companies who care only about profit.

We need OUR government restored and BIG enough, and POWERFUL enough to protect the people from "... ALL enemies foreign and DOMESTIC".

First, Perhaps we can agree that it is to the benefit of all, that we live in a Physically and Mentally healthy population.

Next, we may agree that it took mammal bodies millions of years to gradually adapt to the chemicals, molecules and concentrations that exist in the naturally evolving world.

Next we may agree that when we suddenly manufacture new molecules, and new concentrations, then time is required for evolution to TEST these modified waters of Earth and adapt to the new conditions.

Next, we may agree that Humanity requires some protection from the sudden distribution of unnatural molecules and concentrations.

Once prevention is funded, we can get to the really expensive part... curing what remains.

I realize that if we don't allow people to be made sick and wounded, then our medical industry will be poverty stricken, but that is the price we will have to pay if we want to be healthy.

-ttp

Donna, you are so inspiring! It is almost unbelievable that you have kept up your confidence and
fighting spirit in this climate where warmongers and corrupt financial wizards and their cheerleaders inside and outside the government receive so much media spotlight and admiration, their own mutual admiration but unfortunately also public admiration because of the values shift that has taken place since the 80s. People like you have a chance to bring values back to normal. Keep up the fight!

Pamela Boston

I was amazed, astounded, EMBOLDENED by the entire Journal episode and most especially by Donna Smith herself.

I tell Ms Smith the same thing I told Obama: Tell me where you want me to be and to do and when and I'll be there and do it. WE MUST WIN THIS.

Neither the Republican (nor) Democratic party are representing the common American citizen, these political parties have been involved in special interest's and pork/perk so long this nation may not survive.

American citizens will get nothing out of Washington-DC, until we get the DEM/GOP (out) of Washington-DC, and elect 3-4-5-6 party representatives.

Thank you. I hope you will continue to bring this information to the American public and perhaps some of the other media will follow suit.
Another reason why PBS is so important to democracy.
Those who fear "socialized medicine" need to be educated about the difference between 'single payer' and 'single provider'.

You go girl! Have been following CNA for quite sometime now, I do agree a single payer will first come from CA then spread to the other states......I'm so ready to take to the street and over turn the coblestones.......

Thanks!

You go girl! Have been following CNA for quite sometime now, I do agree a single payer will first come from CA then spread to the other states......I'm so ready to take to the streets and overturn the coblestones.......

Thank YOU, Donna, for your passion, your intelligence and your willingness to fight the hard fight for all of US in America who struggle with a system of health care that is not only totally profit oriented but is only interested in treating symptoms & not preventing illness. Keep up the GOOD WORK.

while i support a single payer system, the discussion is fraught with holes. where is the talk about what comprises health care? currently we have NO health care system in this country. we have a medical industry and insurance that pays for drugs and hospitals that sell drugs and surgery. health in this country is the worst of all industrial nations and worse than that of a number of developing and small nations. cuba has one of the best health care systems in the world. and its people's health demonstrate the effectiveness of it.

today i went to visit someone in the hospital who had a stroke. she is the mother of 2 young children and is only 32 yrs old!!!! why is she having a stroke at this age? her nurse on duty told me, in polite avoidance type language, that there is no concern about a real dietary investigation nor will there be any meaningful toxicology testing to assess the level of heavy metals in her system. and we can count on there being no looking at the impact of gmo foods, and high frustose corn syrup in her diet, much less the ratio of fruits and vegetables in her diet to these dangerous foodstuffs that comprise such a large portion of the american diet.

we have a system of medical fascism and all current talk is about how to get more people to have the means to spend more money on drugs and insurance company profits. i am sick of it and will not support any system that doesn't demand that pharmaceutical companies be held responsible for toxic drugs that keep killing and making people sicker. and i will not support any system that doesn't begin to focus on real health standards and the means to promote health.

This is the interview I've been waiting for! Thank you and Bill Moyers for helping to keep alive a real solution to the health care crisis in America. The offerings being shoved down our throats by America, Inc. are just distractions so we continue to be lulled into submission as they continue to try to undermine the only actual solution: Single Payer!
SINGLE PAYER, SINGLE-PAYER, SINGLE-PAYER... Repeat until we achieve Health Care for All!

THANK YOU Donna! for being the voice of we the people, for telling the truth and exposing the corruption running the government. You are an intelligent and adept speaker. Keep On and God Bless you.
Martin

I think you are all doing a great job. I am disgusted with my local PBS station, they showed this at 2 a.m. I am hoping it will be rerun - as it should - as many times as it takes to get people the message. My husband saw it and told me all about it.

She was excellent. What are Montanans doing about their Stanford-educated, native son Senator, Max Baucus, who says "this will not be considered because we don't have the votes." What does a democratic legislature do? We heard the same line regarding impeachments. This must stop! A national health care program was envisioned to come into effect 1 year after Social Security was enacted. 3/4s of a century has passed. Isn't it time?

Donna - Keep up the good work. You've been an inspiration to me. I'm afraid those of us who took to the streets to campaign for President Obama now have to continue the fight for our right to quality health care without the albatross of for-profit health care companies hanging around our necks. Martin Luther King was right! A country that refuses to care for the health of its citizens is morally corrupt and spiritually dead.

I saw Donna on Bill Moyers Journal last night and she was indeed brilliant. Even my husband, who is not nearly as committed to single payer as I am, agreed that she and the other guests were all terrific -- and right! Thanks and kudos to all of them.

Right on!!

Dear Donna, I loved this report on Bill Moyers show. Congress has shown they care nothing for their constituents and only for the money they receive from greedy lobbyists who are intent to stop us from getting 'single payer' to fruition. We can't give up and we must show all of america which congress people are against us and force them to truly do the right thing. We must topple these greedy politicians and force them to do the will of the people.

you were wonderful! thanks for being such a on point speaker for single payer...your responses to the "devil's advocate" questions from Bill were on the money.

Donna,
As someone who has been spending some serious time working to get single-payer out in the public arena, seeing you speak so effectively on this topic was really moving. To watch the corporate censorship barrier being broken through by Mr. Moyers, and to hear your testimony and analysis brought tears to my eyes a few times during the program. This struggle for universal healthcare is so important. Thank you for all your efforts. Please keep it up and don't let the opposition wear you down!

Very nice. Bill Moyers never fails to host the best and smartest. Single-payer is not a 'liberal' pipe-dream. It is a progressive solution.

I am enormously grateful for the work that Donna Smith and others like her are doing. A single-payer health-care system is the only kind that makes sense, in both economic and health terms.
Frances

You Rock Donna,Lets all keep pushing against the big money interests.

I wrote to Senator Baucus to tell him we need single-payer,.
You are to be commended for your actions, Thank you., You speak for me!

Thank you Donna for articulating so well the need for Single Payer National Health Insurance. You are an inspiration for all of us.

That was a wonderful broadcast last night. All the speakers were wonderful. Especially Donna Smith. She is so knowledgeable, so articulate and so forceful. We've got to win this. Thanks to people like you who are getting the message out. If enough people get informed about this it will happen.

Nurses are by definiation the healthcare professionals whose role is to serve as advocates for our patients. We render care to our patients regardless of their their ability to pay. We are the ones at the bedsides, in the clinics, in the patients homes who see just how broken our system is. Most people who are fortunate enough to be insured are healthly and don't need to use their health benefits very often. That's why Insurance companies are able to make big profits. It's not until people become ill, disabled or infirm that they find out just how little their insurance will cover, or how little control they and their doctor have over the treatment they can get, or the drug they can take. Thank you Donna, and the CNA for taking a leadership role in this fight. Its time for EVERY nurse in America to speak up, to educate our families, freinds and neighbors about what we know to be the truth and to let our congressional representatives know that we demand to have a voice at the table. Real reform cannot be rushed through.

We cannot afford to let insurance companies to control health care.
It cost at least 30% more to let the insurance companies run the system.
It is a sin to keep stealing from the people on health care.
We cannot allow republicans to stab the people in the back by taking huge sums from insurance companies to screw the people.
It is a proven fact that republicanism is a mental illness and we cannot let it continue to poison the country with conservative ignorance.
Work for the people or get out of office!
We must band together and rid ourselves of the people in our government that are preventing the people will to be done.
It is to important to let bought and paid for polls give the corporations everything they want at the expense of the people.

Donna Smith did a great job! One thing that was missing, as is missing in ALL discussions of this current "health care crisis" is this fact: Virtually ALL diseases are PREVENTABLE! Did you know that current medical care kills some 900,000 Americans each year? http://www.mercola.com/2004/jul/7/healthcare_de...

That FAILURE to practice REAL preventative medicine causes millions of illnesses or thousands of heart attacks each year? That adequate sunshine exposure alone would save over 120,000 lives from cancer each year in America? (http://tompetrie.net/8.html), that avoiding vaccines would likely prevent virtually ALL cases of autism? See Vaccine nation documentary or go to: http://payloadz.com/d1?txn_id=8XP305745D8344017, or that reducing one's sugar consumption to ZERO (except that in fresh fruits, vegetables, honey and other unrefined sweeteners) would more than double the effectiveness of one's immune system? That regular exercise would dramatically reduce one's chances for depression (or help one overcome it), dramatically reduce one's chances of obesity, heart disease, diabetes or cancer? That adequate exposure to sunshine might help prevent multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, heart disease and even some forms of skin cancer? That eating organically grown fruits and vegetables (and much more of them), would dramatically improve our health and prevent thousands of future ailments/diseases?

Well, that's enough for saving over 600,000 lives per year at near ZERO cost. THAT's the way to save our health care dollars. This from a nutritionist with ZERO health care costs over the previous 51 years, minus a few thousand for health care premiums over the previous 18 months. Tom, Nutritionist, http://tompetrie.net.

we need to change our line so folks understand. nobody knows whathe hell single payer means.
get smart--AMERICANS NEED FREE CHOICE-- MEDICARE FOR THOSE WHO WANT MEDICARE

misunderstanding?

HR 676 has been nicknamed Medicare for All. It is the best Single Payer Bill out there. EVERYBODY IN. NOBODY OUT.

Free choice to pick our doctors and other providers.

I did watch Bill Moyers this week as I do every week as many more people should if they wish to keep informed. Donna Smith is courageous, intelligent, and thoughtful. I am so dissappointed that Obama is not listening to the voices who know that Single Payer system is the only way to save money and cover everybody as Canada, England, France, and many other countries do. Keep up the good work.

I absolutely agree that the current for-profit health insurance system serves only the companies, not the rest of Americans. Keep pushing for the single-payer option. Yes, I fear it would be difficult to get through Congress and, probably, disruptive to put into place nationally, but, with thoughtful minds on-board, it can be done.

politicians can't give us single payer until they figure ENOUGH PEOPLE UNDERSTAND IT to cover their butts.

Are we big and strong enough to protect leaders from insurance companies' wrath at election time?

INFORM your friends and let's RAISE OUR VOICES!!

Donna is articulate, feisty, and above all smart. Loved her "intellectually honest conversation" plea.

That she was sunk financially despite 3 different ways she'd tried to insure herself and her husband for healthcare costs - private insurance, a health care savings account, and the other program she mentioned - speaks vividly about the universal plight of Americans that our private health insurers try to make us feel is personal failure or bad luck when we're mired in it. Even those who are covered ain't really covered. It's a scam making the insurance business rich. And it is a business.
Even the "non-profit" insurer model is broken and thrives only by rationing care, for they need enough profits to pay their executives handsomely and market themselves to put other insurers out of business - competition goes with capitalism, always, and ends up eating money in market competitions that are wasteful and produce nothing but too-big-to-fail, price-setting (and eventually price-gouging) monopolies. For all Americans who fear bureaucrats from the government denying them healthcare, they should get a clear picture of the health insurance bureaucrats denying them care right now - or when they get sick. That's what's veiled, and Donna rips the veil off. Wonderful segment. If we all "owned" our health-care delivery, we'd all be interested in both receiving proper care - and not allowing abuse and waste in its delivery. With an accountable single payer system, we'd have the best our health care providers have to offer!

How can ordinary Americans "get into the Act"? How do we break the power of insurance company lobbyists? How have our European allies been able to deliver government-sponsored health care with the support of their civilian populations? What do those government-run programs have to teach us?

marian

sign onto the PDA website or the PNHP website or the healthcare NOW (not health care for america now) website. call and write your representatives. may 30 is a national day of action. check out what is going on in your area. talk to everyone you know about single payer and tell them to watch this broadcast.

Boy, what a refreshing take on health care.
Donna, you were fabulous (and Bill was fantastic, as always).

You go, Donna !

My husband and I pay roughly one third of our retirement income for health insurance. A few years ago, after I had spent 18 months in physical therapy with an unreached goal of relieving the pain of Achilles tendonitis which kept me from walking normally -- or exercising, using stairs, getting up without pain in the morning -- my podiatrist recommended that I have non-invasive one-time extra-corporeal shockwave therapy [ ESWT ] to break up scar tissue so healing could take place. Others of his patients had had successful ESWT in similar circumstances; my podiatrist believed I was an excellent candidate for it -- having tried the progression of standard available processes with no success. He went to bat for me, but to no avail. HIs recommendation was pooh-poohed by the insurance company: ESWT is "unproven" and "experimental".

The insurance company refused to cover a one-time ESWT treatment at $1000, but would cover invasive surgery at $5000,00 -- surgery the outcome of which would be uncertain and which would result in the formation of new scar tissue. The decision through four levels of appeals ? "We will not cover ESWT. It is not medically necessary." I thought, What ?! Not medically necessary for me to walk pain free ... to go up and down stairs with ease ... to step into and out of the bathtub safely ?

Needing to get back on my feet and physically active with no further delay, I put together the money to have ESWT. Within 2 weeks, I was able to walk for 10 minutes without pain; after one month, I was 80% back to normal, and after 6 weeks, I had no pain and was getting daily exercise again.

The single payer option that has been stamped down by special interests,congress and the President is a flat out betrayal of U.S. citizens.
Banks,the military industrial complex, and big pharma's lobbyists must be drowned out by the voting public. Support alternative candidates in the coming Democratic Primary Elections if they vote on the side of the insurance companies.

Thank you, Donna, from all of us who have believed for so many years that single-payer will be the only way to give Americans--ALL Americans--the health care that they need and deserve. We pay too much money for too little care under our present system, and anyone who tries to convince us that single-payer will limit access or choices should look at what they have got now, which does so even more.

Wonderful presentation, Donna and all. President agrees, citizens agree to HR676 single payor, but Congress and their money source are a formidable obstacle.

You did good Donna, I was proud of you. As a 69 year old senior who has been fighting for SPUHC for what seems like forever, it was encouraging to see you Professionals out there standing up and speaking out. May the "Force" be with you..........Curtis Mulkey

Donna Smith did a great job for single payer message and thanks to Bill Moyers for having her on.
AHIP will be in San Diego June 2-5 for national convention. JOIN SD COALTION MEMBERS FOR SINGLE PAYER ON THURS, JUNE 4 8AM -10AM TO PROTEST THE INSURANCE COMPANY BIG WHIGS AT SAN DIEGO CONVENTION CENTER GRASSY KNOLL ACROSS STREET.

Donna was intellectually honest, poignant, profoundly moving, insightful and rightfully damning of our broken healthcare system.

I’m hoping the fact that 14,000 employees lives are disrupted each day because they lose their employer based health benefits will help enlighten OUR Legislature. There is no rhetoric an elected official can use to fix the global economic crisis faster than offering the existing Medicare program to all.

Our social conscience can put an African American in the Oval Office, so, certainly we can change the mindset of OUR Congress--everybody in, nobody out.

My husband and I watched Bill Moyers' program Friday night about "single payer health insurance" and it seems to us to be the best answer to our health care problems.
We need to educate more people about it.

I applaud Donna Smith and all the other professionals acting with her. Let the private insurance companies exist and compete with a government run insurance program. From what Smith said, at least 50-60% of the public will choose the government unless private companies reform themselves. With stockholders to satisfy and ridiculous salaries to maintain, they'll fail to come close to what people need from them.

We need a health-care system -- and a country -- that is for the PEOPLE, not huge corporations. Corporate entities don't get diabetes, high blood pressure, AIDS, swine flu, etc. PEOPLE do, and health care must be set up to take the best care of the PEOPLE possible. Industry profits are NOT the point -- not the insurance industry, not Bib Pharm. Doctors should be allowed to work with their patients to provide them the tests, the care, the treatments they need -- whether or not some enterprise makes money off it.

Thank You Donna and other SINGLE PAYER friends! Maybe Canadians are brighter than we are? KQED had trouble (right) transmitting Bill Moyers last night but plenty folks 'got it'!

Keep up the good work.

Linda Hagan

Type your comment here.
This piece of video was sby far the mmost compelling argument for single payor and election reform and most importantly puble fiance of campaign, the illiminaton of the lobbiest input
public disclosure of lobby connection etc.
If the Dems, the repu's think they can corner the market
our system is lost
WE should endeavor to spread this sort of dialogue far and wide

Great to see with Bill. It was a very engaging and enlightening session. Thank you so much for "holding space" for all of us on this issue!

In the 3rd Congressional district of Pa. where I live, we have a freshman democratic Congresswoman named Kathy Dahlkemper who has been putting on a dog and pony show with AARP.. They are promoting healthccare reform that includes for profit health insurers at the heart of the system.. Meanwhile over 62% of all Pennsylvanians support single payer, the city councils of Pittsburgh,Philadelphia and Mrs. Dahlkempers hometown of Erie,have all passed resolution supporting HR676.. The city of Philadelphia did a study that showed they would save $539 million dollars a year if HR676 were enacted.A number of school systems in Western Pa. have endorsed HR676.. Yet,this freshman congresswoman will not support or even consider supporting healthcare reform without insurance company involvement.. When asked why, she stated that the people in her district don't support single payer... This is the BS people are being told by the people they elect..It didn't take long for this woman to become "Washingtonized". They need to be exposed for being special interest puppets and replace a.s.a.p.Te people want and support single payer.. It's the people we have elected to represent us who have chosen to represent the special interests..It's a shame and a disgrace!! I applaud Bill Moyer and Donna for shedding light on the reason our elected officials won't put single payer on the table and how people are being duped by our on the take government!!!

donna,

you were GREAT!!! watched the program with a friend of mine and she thought you were GREAT. and she is now convinced that single payer is the way to go.

i was struck by the footage of you during your congressional testimony. i told my friend how scared you said you were when you testified. "well, she sure doesn't look scared now", she said upon hearing that. thank you for your courageous example and your determination. it is a constant source of encouragement for me. looking forward to seeing you in CT on the 28th.

lauren serven

Thank yhouo Donna - You are an intelligent , articulate, and inspiring voice for all of us who support Single Payor!
Dr. R. Boynton

Much love to you for all you have done and continue to do. Now is the time to get single payer done. Love, Jeff

Donna Smith rocks! Thank you for fighting the good fight for all Americans. I hope that you won't just have a presence at the meetings- they need to start listening to what you have to say! The present state of affairs is an outrage!

Obama needs to have access to this.

A wonderful description and explanation of what is truly wrong with our health care system. As long as the health insurance industry can pump great amounts of money into political campaigns, it will be an uphill battle to get "single payer" on the agenda. Congress needs to hear from as many citizens as possible to make sure it gets its full hearing. We certainly do not need any "trigger" mechanism!

Moyers asked the "hard" questions and Donna had all the sane answers. How anyone would allow anything other than single payer in a country that likes to think of itself as the best in the world is beyond comprehension.

Right on! Single payer is the only way to go. Please make this video available for post on facebook so I can share it with my friends.

I just figured out how to share this video on my facebook. Thanks.

We need you out there fighting for us! Thank you for taking this on.

My only wish is that I could get just one official or elected representative to talk about the horrific life people like me live because we're on private-payer (poorly regulated) disability insurance, not Social Security. This means we don't get Medicare, and we pay for our own healthcare and insurance.

For me, over one-half of my take home pay is spent every year or premium, deductible, and co-pays. That's $14,800 of my $30,000 income. With rent at $9000 and utilities at $2520, and my car loan and insurance at another $5090, that equals $31410. Already I'm $1410 over my income and I haven't eaten one meal!!!

So, as you can imagine, I've been borrowing from new credit cards that are now maxed out. For the first time in 38 years, I may not be able to ay my rent or my bills; this has never happened before. My FICO of 795 is well below 550, not because I've ever paid late, but because of the abuse of the credit card industry in lowering my limits, etc.

My entire life has been ruined because of private disability and private health insurance; that the credit card industry is taking advantage of me is only adding salt into the wound. People in my situation are committing suicide more frequently, and I can completely see why.

Every day, I ask myself if that is not a great option for me. Thank goodness, I have a daughter to worry about or I think I'd do it.

What a timely episode ! Thank you Donna ! You were great ! Thanks to Bill Moyers ! Let's all join in and continue this fight !

Donna was amazing ...she was the highlight of Bill's show!!!! Good job and thanks for standing up for all of us!!!! You are my hero!!!!

Well put!!!

To Donna and the PDA,
THANK YOU for giving me the insight as to single payer health care for all! I am the Ad Hoc Committee Chairman for the EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT at the Savannah Regional Central Labor Council. YOU were an inspiration to me especially as I watched the trials and tribulations your group (PDA) have been forced to undergo. I am also involved as the point person to Representative John Barrow's Office here in Savannah, Georgia...he doesn't know it YET...but I will soon be paying his office a visit to speak to the issues YOU enlightened me about.

THANK YOU for your service and dedication...your efforts and those of others have not gone unnoticed!

What a wonderful presentation. Donna Smith is certainly an eloquent supporter of health care reform.

She tells it like it is. If we can give health care to our veterans, why can't we do it for all Americans? Health care is just as much a right as free education. If education can be run by government without it being called socialistic, why not health care?

Thanks for showcasing this very vital matter on your program.

If you would like to showcase another vital problem, I ask that you contact me. I have been a CPA since 1947. I am a survivor of the Battle for Iwo Jima. I was managing partner of the Houston office of a national accounting firm. I taught auditing at the University of Houston and Rice, as well as at training courses sponsored by the American Institute of Certified Accountants.

Our country could have avoided much of its fiancial chaos if the major CPA firms had been honest in their work. I can quote chapter and verse about how the auditors failed to disclose the fraud at WorldCom, Enron, AIG, and at the major mortgage originators. CPAs are supposed to be independent. that is impossible when the client being audited pays the auditor's fees. Arthur Andersen did not give up Enron as a client, even though they had misgivings about the company, because according to the minutes of AA's executive committee the fees for the coming year would be more than $100,000,000.

I hope you will respond to this. I talked to Barney Frank and he gave me his private fax number. He never replied.

Many thanks for all that you do.

Aubrey M. Farb

PS: I am almost 87 years old and have been married for 61 years.

Donna,
You were great on Bill Moyers! I also like the articles you write that I find
on Michael Moore's web site. Your explanation of Single Payer broke it down
in a way that everyone can understand. There is no longer any excuse for why
the United States can't have single payer. It's time to stop the special interests from undermining the will of the people.

Donna,
I watched the show last night and was so impressed with your comments. Thank you so much for doing what you do.

Yes, YES, Y E S!!!
I couldn't agree more. Single Payor healthcare is the only way to provide quality healthcare to everyone AND save huge amounts of money. We must ELIMINATE the healthcare INSURANCE industry.

How dare that Senator Max Baucus call in the Capitol Police the pigs to arrest anyone for speaking out, because round table discussions should be an open meeting for giving everyone the opportunity to speak no matter what, because we need single payer now, not tomorrow, nor six months, nor six years now, therefore there should not be any debates until Single Payer Healthcare is on the table, Max Baucus is as bad as the Republicans are in siding with the Insurance Giants. If he keeps this up he should not be reelected.

Woohoo, Donna! We could not possibly ask for a better spokesperson for single-payer health care. You are so articulate, so compassionate, so likable.

Thank you so much for so excellently articulating the need and the support for single-payer health care.

I like hearing that this is a civil rights campaign that we will win with struggle, a long one, a hard one, but we will win.

kudos to Donna Smith - beautiful and articulate discussion of our health care crisis. Thank you. Sandra - R.N. California

Hooray to Donna Smith and the other courageous people who have put themselves on the line to speak up for a single-payer system. I am totally in support of your efforts!

Insurance should be for private property, something our health most assuredly is not. Until we withdraw private money from political campaigns, those with the most $$$ will have the final say until this country collapses under the weight of corporate greed.
On the individual front, Americans must change both their eating and exercise habits; to someone in their 60's like me, the sight of routinely overweight people is appalling. It's been said that lead in their drinking water may have contributed to the fall of the Roman empire, our's may well fall under the personal and financial costs of obesity.

Why was there the breakdown in this splendid interview? All of a sudden it froze. We need to heard everything that Donna Smith had to say, and everything that Bill Moyers was going to ask, on this issue of vital importance to every single person in this country.
Why, then, was it cut off?

I would be grateful for a response.
Anne Schultz, Chicago

Donna, simply put....you rocked it! Intelligent, detailed, truthful, and well-spoken. Brilliant!

Conress needs to listen to the voters who put their morally bankrupt asses in a position where they should be held accountable to THE PEOPLE, NOT THE MONEY $$$$ . Greed is ruining our country , with politicians and insurance empires at the top of the heap. It makes me sick to see compassion snuffed out by the love of status & money.

politicians can't give us single payer until they figure ENOUGH PEOPLE UNDERSTAND IT to cover their butts.

Are we big and strong enough to protect leaders from insurance companies' wrath at election time? INFORM your friends and let's RAISE OUR VOICES!!

The rich, selfish and greedy squawk 'socialism' every time one dollar is diverted from their coffers into the hands of the public. Government of the people, by the people, and for the people is not 'socialism', it's democracy. A government in bed with corporate is 'fascism'. When fascist governments change the laws and drop regulation, thus allowing them to pillage and steal with no consequences, yet enlist police and mercenaries to keep 'the people' they steal from in line, (the arrests in this video) we have nothing more than an 'anarchist' government. That's what we've dealt with for the 8 years, and the tentacles of that sickness are still prevalent in the current administration, making it impossible to get decent legislation passed that addresses the real needs of the people. Health care is the tip of the iceberg. Donna Smith and the medical professionals demonstrating are hero's and hopefully will set an example for more people to speak up against the countless crimes being perpetrated on the American public by corporate greed. Obama won using 'change' as his mantra...until all of us with common sense and decency get behind him and help instrument that change, it will not happen. One who fights stands a chance of losing. One who refuses to fight has already lost.

Thank you donna and bill' the USA has needs and single payer healthcare is a big one. Joe

People need preventitave healthcare,HMO must go, they were Nixons dumbest error. Iam living proof if you have insurance you get the care,no insurance you LESS care
The pharmasuticle,physicians,and the AMA are all for the dollar. Cuba has better then us. Drug prices need to be reduced, uhen you can go to another country and obtain the same brand medication for 1/4 of the price same drug..
Only my choice of physician should rule my health care. now the goverment.Only the patient and the dodcor. How about some common sence for patients not your pocket bookd

WAY TO GO, DONNA! For your thoughtful and articulate way of explaining the important concept of single payer.
As a physician, I am deeply embarrassed that the richest, most powerful country in the world can not provide the most basic healthcare services for ALL its citizens

PLEASE KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.
Thank you.

I live in Massachusetts. This state now mandates you buy health insurance. Senator Max Baucus is on record that he wishes to use this state as his model for health insurance. Here is what that means to all Americans. It is easily verified by all readers. A 50 y.o. couple earning just $43,740 gross per year is mandated, under threat of fines and criminal charge of tax evasion for not paying such fines, to purchase a $15,954 to $23,763 yearly policy in order to have single payer like coverage. It is still inferior to that enjoyed by citizens of nearly all modern industrialized nations with single payer. As Senator Baucus might say we are America and deserve the best so naturally the other Ma.policies with huge deductibles wouldn’t apply to citizens of the wealthiest nation in the world. This yearly cost is nearly 50%+- of disposable income. Everyone reading this would agree this is unconscionable. Simply put a Ma. zip code 01201 and you can verify these numbers here : http://www.mahealthconnector.org/portal/site/co...

Reasons for this cost are many but are to be found largely in insurers 31% profit and bureaucratic waste across 1300 individual companies and the huge burden placed by them on hospitals and doctors office and billing staffs. Under the Max Baucus plan we will be forced to fund this waste . Single payer will eliminate this waste and is estimated to bring costs for us down to well under $6000 for this example. Verify savings here: http://www.medicareforall.org/pages/Costs_and_S...

A great and civil discussion comparing what little we get for our money in America vs. Canada http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/01/28/how-the-u...

Canada's Supreme Court recently made possible private insurance, the type Mr. Baucus is selling. Not ONE policy was sold: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/03...

Most important is to understand neither the left or right will protect our interests when it comes to healthcare, there’s just to much money at stake, our money, and our money has been spoken for by health insurers who have funneled hundreds of millions to our political leaders to defeat single payer. Either we work together to demand sensible single payer or spend a large part of every year working to pay for coverage while what little remains of Americas once vibrant and competitive economy is drained away by the insurance cabal..

Thank you, Donna, for your dedication in pursuing the ONLY sensible health-care policy for the United States--single-payer health care. I am proud to call you MY representative on this issue.

Way to go Donna! Mandated health insurance will never work. Massachusetts has tried it recently and it is already failing there! We have a very good example of a single-payer system in one of our neighbors that has a health care system that has a better outcome measured result than our own. No - it's not Canada - it is Cuba!

We need single-payer now!

Donna;
I watched you on both Bill Moyers and at least part of your testimony on C-Span. I was once in the health care business doing temporary staffing with CRT and RRT's back in the mid late '80's. I now am totally disabled retired too soon and have fights with both Medicare and the VA over continuity as well as quality and access on an ongoing basis. With my back and bones I'm left with firing off emails and letters and my Combat PTSD rears its misanthropic head whenever my chronic physical pain comes into contact with the bullshit that has become accepted political dialogue about healthcare. So it is a real treat to see you marching and speaking and doing your best to get our congressman and senators to deal with Single Payer seriously. I agree with your assessment that "their minds are already made up" I saw that very same thing in Vietnam, in Iran Contra, Iraq #1 as well as this latest debacle. Its frustrating to see what you are saying is bouncing off a wall largely erected by the monied lobbying groups on behalf of their stake holders. That's a hell of a phrase. Insurance as an industry has been the boogyman for good reason. If we had a National Health Program with Universal Coverage and a National K-12 to HS and College Free with Universal Coverage we would not have all of the well paying jobs flying off shore. Why? Because our manufacturing base would have a locally grown stream of educated and healthy employees at all levels and with those costs contained and not carried on the backs of workers and small businesses we could out compete anyone. So there must be some other payoff that we're not being made aware of that these folks are counting on to keep the status quo. If we could find out what that is then we could get
it into the sunlight which is healthy for our democracy as well as being the best disinfectant. I think much of the dialogue if it can even be called that is actually distortions, distractions, and out right lies to keep the real reason from coming to the surface. So am with you on the send an email front and my good thoughts are with you and your team as
you head out into the fray.

Donna is a great spokesperson for the single payer movement, for CNA and for PDA. Her call to arms that only "street heat" to quote Tim Carpenter will have any impact in the face of big money backing the GOP and corporate Dems is, unfortunately, entirely on point. Thursday I spoke for PDA at a Democratic Club in Middleberg Hts., OH to encourage calls of support to Steny Hoyer and of the 30 people there likely 25 backed single payer. Because this is Dennis Kucinich's district that is not surprising but I wager that the vast majority of Democratic activists are on board. We must encourage them to pressure their legislators and then to punish them if they don't respond. Thanks again Donna. Eloquent and persuasive as always.

Many thanks to Bill Moyers and Donna Smith for keeping the focus on Single Payer Healthcare! An excellent idea whose time has come!

Thank you,Donna,for your courage and hard work. I'm with you on a single payer plan. How dare our elected representatives who receive their excellent healthcare coverage at our expense not even bother to consider ALL the options for the taxpayers. Just remember that while most of us may be hard hit by higher premiums and higher deductibles your congressional representative is receiving 100% coverage paid for by your tax dollars. Must be nice. And then getting those big campaign contributions from the insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

I'm from Chicago but I live in France. My husband and I have had so many serious health problems, we would be living on the street if we were in the U.S.A. The French just can't figure out "the American way of life" re: healthcare. In France, the more life-threatening the illness, the more you are covered by the government. When a person is ill, he just concentrates on getting better, and is not tormented by the financial side.
KEEP ON FIGHTING for a basic human right. Vive la protestation

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Donna Smith!! I am not a healthcare professional. I am a billing clerk for a large urban county. Our state began farming out responsibility for some Medicaid services to private HMOs some years ago, shortly after I first became familiar with the state health care systems. Suddenly services which were formerly paid on the basis of client need and income based eligibility, were subject to prior authorization requirements, service limits, physician registration updates, CPT code edits, etc.
I saw our county Human Services department suddenly losing thousand upon thousand of dollars in reimbursements not because we did anything differently, but because the private insurers had changed the rules.
The problem continues to this day, some ten years later. Each time the state Department of Human Services decides to pass a program to the private insurers, I find that the consequent negotiations and contracts take away our billing compacity. Billing windows are shortened, physicians must jump through registration/certification hoops.....And, most frustrating of all: Management does not seem to see a problem with the insurance companies driving the level of care, the level of coverage, the credentialing....etc So frustrated!! So sad!!
I am so glad you are fighting for all of us. Thank you once again.
On a slightly more personal note: I now hesitate to go to the doctor for ordinary checkups. I'm very healthy and I don't want to risk making any increase in copays for my beloved co-workers who have the misfortune to have chronic healthcare issues.

Go, Donna Go! I loved you on Bill Moyers last night.

single payer is the only solution, we have been fighting for socialized, or for those that have a problem with this term, single payer for years, at least since the 1960's. insurance companies are nothing but paper pushers..they have absolutely no reason to exist other than scaming, a grafter scheme.It's our health on every level that is at stake. we need to realize this, the health industry has no part in our health, in our medical care, our well being the corporations of this country are the law, we need to face up to this, and act accordingly. It's our nation, it is imperative we take back our country, our earth.

Good job Donna! Keep fighting to get what America really wants! WE WANT SINGLE PAYER!!

Big money influences not only control our legislators, but more importantly they control the discussion on main stream media. So with this single exception, the American people don't get to hear a thing about socialized healthcare. The American people know one thing for certain, their healthcare system is bad. If the American people actually knew about single payer they might be in the streets with those nurses and doctors.

ANYONE TAKING THE TIME TO JOIN DONNA SMITH WITH BILL MOYERS ON "THE JOURNAL" FRIDAY EVENING, MAY 22, 2009 MUST HAVE COME AWAY WITH A RENEWED SENSE OF THE UP-HILL FIGHT FACING THOSE OF US WHO WOULD "LIVE, BREATH AND DIE" FOR A SINGLE-PAYER ENHANCED "MEDICARE-FOR-ALL" SOLUTION TO OUR NATION'S HEALTH CARE CRISIS! I FOR ONE AM NOW EVEN MORE COMMITTED TO SINGLE-PAYER ... AND I THANK DONNA SMITH, AIDED AND ABETTED BY MOYERS, FOR RE-CHARGING MY BATTERIES! WAY BIG TIME MUCHO THANKS DONNA FOR TELLING IT LIKE IT OUGHTA BE TOLD! AND PLEASE CONTINUE TO "GIV'EM HELL"! WE HAVE GOT YOUR BACK! SEE YOU ALL IN AUGUSTA, MAINE FOR "THE FEET ON THE STREET RALLY" THIS SATURDAY, MAY 30TH !!!

If ever there were a time to re-commit to Single-Payer, the nation-wide planned May 30th demonstrations for Single-Payer and "real health care change" will provide one and all a super opportunity to join the movement! Remember always: It is immoral for a country as wealthy as ours to have 45 million people with no health coverage, and tens of millions more with inadequate or overly expensive coverage.

It also makes no economic sense; despite spending twice as much as other industrialized nations on health care, our system performs poorly because the private "For Profit & Health Care Be Damned" U.S. insurance bureaucracy soaks up nearly one-third of all health care money in waste, profits, paperwork, concerted efforts to deny coverage and advertising.

Poor health and poor health care are drags on the economy and job creation; up to half of all personal bankruptcies are caused by health care crises.

And yet the "bought and paid for" Senate Finance Sub-Committee under the guiding hand of Democrat Chairman Senator Max Baucus (who is famous for having sold out to the U.S. insurance corporations and special interest lobbyists big time long ago) recently conducted "Laugh-A-Minute" roundtable discussions as if there were: No such thing as H.R. 676 ... No such thing as professionally qualified working doctors and nurses seeking to participate in those same talks ... No such thing as a majority of Americans and large segments of the business community in favor of a Single-Payer Enhanced "Medicare-For-All" solution to our nation's present Health Care Crisis!

Evidently the Obama administration has also lost sight of ... Or is equally blind and deaf to ...The ever growing nation-wide support for the Single-Payer Health Care option as well!

Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) supports Rep. John Conyers bill, H.R. 676, which establishes streamlined, nonprofit national health insurance ... Enhanced "Medicare-For-All" ... Which would negotiate drug and treatment costs. By replacing private insurers and recouping administrative savings of up to $300 billion per year, this Single-Payer approach provides topnotch health care to everyone. Care would be privately delivered by healers and hospitals, but publicly financed ... With no bills, co-pays, deductibles, denials or medically-induced bankruptcies. PDA also supports health care initiatives at the state and local level that move us toward a "Non-Profit" Single-Payer system.

THUS, WE ASK: WHERE FOR ART THOU "ORGANIZING FOR AMERICA" ??? What has become of the "Voice and Force For Change" ??? HOW AND WHY HAS OBAMA LOST THE WAY ??? Maybe it's just more of the "BEST GOVERNMENT MONEY CAN BUY" hard at work! Gettin' it done for the BIGS!

Nevertheless, I will continue to fight for Single-Payer and give what little funds I can afford to part with to PDA and its efforts on behalf of all Americans!

Once again ... PLEASE JOIN US MAY 30th IN AUGUSTA, MAINE ... Don't miss the "FEET ON THE STREET" RALLY ... For more information, click on and vist: http://www.midcoasthealthcarereform.org/ !!!

Wayne A. Mayo

We are so thankful to have Donna Smith and the CA Nursing Association fighting for the basic right of all people to have healthcare.
Let's not be afraid to lessen fears cooked and fed to the American people by the insurance industry.
Thanks for all you do!

Single payer health care was advocated time and time again by Dennis Kucinich and that's why I voted for him in the primaries. Ralph Nader also introduced the concept many years ago. I am strongly behind this movement. Let the health insurance companies fall, one by one, and then, also, make the drug industry abide through strict control over the cost of drugs, research, and accountability.

Max Baucus, We need a single-payer healthcare system, and now! At the least, give our advocates a place at the table, so that we can be heard.

Donna Smith throws a touchdown in her appearance on Bill Moyers. She brings the human dimension to the issue in a way that engages and adds to our movement. Donna, you were wonderful. The movement is gaining momentum, even while the forces that will keep the profit driven insurance industry at the helm is seeking to cap a solution in the few months ahead.

How foolish of the Democrats. If only they would quit fearfully taking baby steps and become a vocal and sustained voice for the American people. If they gave us all health care under a single-payer system, they would be heralded, loved, and remembered by the American people for years to come. Little do they know, when the band aid measure they now seek fails, and it will fail, they will not only vilify government's ability to effectively find solutions, they will vilify the Democratic Party as a failure too.

Whether through the eight years of Bush, no matter the issue, they fail to speak with an authoritative unwavering that puts the desire of the people over the demands of the Republican talk machine and the corporations behind it. This vacillating timidity has not only let down the needs of their constituents, it has let down the needs of the nation.

Donna, keep being the voice of common sense and humanity, and all of us do our part to build this movement that will seize control of the agenda regardless of who stands in our way. Many of our congressional leaders have forgotten who they are supposed to serve, and it is partially our fault, A retiring apathy is not the hallmark of change. A vocal, mass of people in the streets engaged in direct actions is the only way to shake up the power structures. We must give back in large doses the fear that has been pedaled to the American people to those who dare put special interests over interests of the people.

It's good that you can remain calm and focused when discussing the issues. I get too ticked off to keep cool. These insurance bozos should be brought to trial for crimes against humanity. Isn't it a crime to let people die? Right now police are searching for the mother of the boy with cancer who refuses to allow her son to be treated (per the news) and when they find her they will put her in jail for not allowing her son to be treated. But when an insurer fails to allow treatment, he/she gets a raise.

You always hear about the CEOs. But what about the others--- in sales, advertising, accounting, customer service. They are all perpetuating the con. Ask the next customer service person you talk to how he/she can work for a company that screws people out of health care.

But watch your tone. Back-talk is not covered by insurance companies. They tape the calls for training purposes---they train employees how to cancel whiners (like me) and they can train you not to say what you really want to say (for fear of being cancelled.)

I fantasize about suing insurance companies for crimes against humanity. The writers for Boston Legal will prepare the case, and headed by James Spader and Candice Bergen, we win.

In another dream I chain myself in protest to a CEO's Lexus---but then undo the chains and chain myself to the VW Jetta next to it--- owned by a guy in customer service.

In reality, I would join a March on Washington. On the bus I will make up jokes about insurance workers. You know, like the lawyer jokes. "Did you hear about the lawyer who..." Well..."Did you hear about the insurance salesman who...")

Might be good for morale.

I agree that a single payer system is the best solution for health care for all. I have Medicare and find it to be as good as the private insurance I had- sometimes better- before i retired. I think all Americans should have an opportunity to have the same system. Health care insurance companies waste way too much on ;large salaries and advertising. They are not to big to fail. They know they can't compete so they will pay the sellout congressmen whatever it takes to keep single payer
off the table.

Thank you Donna and Bill Moyers. I am 57 and on 2 meds for my blood pressure. I left my lousy job working for the Regis Corporation when they dumped comprehensive health ins and offered junk health ins....high deductible and a low ceiling on benefits. I am now self employed as a hair stylist and have been offered a decent policy for $1200 a month. I have to take my chances without insurance.
I have urged my customers to see Sicko and they look at me like I am a Communist. I love Micheal Moore but he has been demonized by the right wing for telling the truth about many issues.
I love my president but I am disappointed that he has not come out in support of a single payer system. We need socialized medicine. I would move to France if I had a job there.

Donna, you are a true hero! I saw you demonstrate (on TV) in our nations capitol -- only to be jeered and rejected by our so-called legislative body. Please continue your mission because it is so important to all Americans. As a retiree, I find our "single payer" Medicare system works very well. When I was working, I had to settle for an HMO and I always had to see a GP before I could see a specialist -- and then it was difficult to get the HMO to reimburse the doctors and/or hospitals. Please try to get the word out in advance on your future demonstrations because I want to join you in your next Washington D. C. demonstration. (I marched with over one hundred thousand demonstrators to end the Iraq war -- and I am now willing to march with even more demonstrators so our voices will be heard in support of single payer health insurance . Our present insurance companies have let us down. Now is the time to change the system so it serves the people and not the special interests.

Thanks to Donna for all of the continuing hard work.
Thanks to Bill Moyers and PBS for being THE media outlet to inform Americans
about how citizens are being kept out of the democratic process related to health reform.

Donna - You need to invite the citizenry to your protests!! We will come and march with you. I love that nurses are marching - but let's show Congress that you are backed up The People.

Jeni - appreciate the sentiment, but let's not be telling Donna what SHE needs to do.

WE need to inform our family and friends and get them to raise their voices with us NOW. June is the heat of the battle.

Politicians CAN'T PROTECT US from insurance companies, UNLESS WE CAN PROTECT THEM at election time. Holler louder!

Donna Smith, you are a true Amerian hero. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for telling the truth to power about America's moral need for single-payer healthcare. One week ago I wrote a scathing letter to our president advising him that, though I enthusiastically supported his campaign with contributions, not another dollar of mine will go into his coffers because of his glib backpedaling on his promise of a single-payer option at the town-hall meeting in New Mexico on May 14. From now on, as I told Barack Obama, my support goes to Progressive Democrats of America, Howard Dean and John Conyers. Keep up your good and important work, knowing that millions of us are behind you in spirit.

Donna was outstanding on the Bill Moyers Show. Thanks, Donna, for you presence.

In the latest PDA email release I realized that better than signs saying:
HEALTHCARE, NOT WARFARE
would be:
HEALTHCARE, YES -- INSURANCE COMPANIES, NO!
Is it possible for PDA to have those signs available for distribution?

single payer, single payer yes. Those against single payer should opt out of medicare when they reach 65. Medicare runs like a charm, efficient, simple, accurate, easy. It is a blessing after having dealt with insurance companies both as a consumer and also as a mental health practitioner. they were a nightmare!!!

medicare for all.
jessica heriot

You go, Donna!!
Thanks, Bill.

As usual an outstanding and informative Moyer's Journal report. Donna Smith's articulate responses to the interview and , of course, her involvement in support of Single Payer is truly inspirational. The other participants are deserving of high praise as well.
Mr. President: hear the beat. THE WHITE COATS ARE COMING

I wish I had heard about this movement for healthcare reform in CA last year!
I am a CA "native" and FULLY ONBOARD...I, too, have endured a bankruptcy over medical costs during a healthcare emergency and am outraged with our current government representatives, at every level, for NOT hearing "US".
I SINCERELY THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORK!!

Donna - This is what you were meant to do! You are SO SHARP, SO WELL-INFORMED-- you're like a less radical Cindy Sheehan for healthcare! Thank you for your dedication. I'll do what i can do to help...

For- profit health care, in my opinion, is as appropriate as for-profit fire departments. The public has spoken but Congress is deaf. Its system is as broken as the medical system and , it seems, for similar reasons. Thank you Bill Moyers and Donna Smith for helping to represent many of us.

Until the latest Moyers Journal, I had thought that, although a single-payer scheme is the proper solution (and what most, if not all, other developed countries have), it couldn't be done here because of the millions it would put out of work. I had read somewhere that the other countries all started from a different point, so that they didn't have this problem. But last night it was said that Canada did do just such a switch, so it is possible. I wish this issue had been addressed in the program. What did Canada do with all the out-of-work insurance employees? - and with those at doctors' offices and hospitals who had previously wasted time with insurance billing?

Another thing: I'm disgusted that the insurance industry is attacking even Obama's compromise with them - his proposal to allow them to continue, but offer us an alternative government health-care option. (I'm particularly disgusted that Blue Cross - Blue Shield, which just days ago was saying it had no option but to increase some premiums, is spending a huge amount - was it a million dollars? - to fight against the option). But the doctors in Moyers' program pointed out that the option is not a practical solution anyway, mainly because it doesn't eliminate the need for clerical work on the billing side for health providers.

So the upshot of all this is that I'm now converted: the single-payer health care scheme is the only practical solution. But I still despair that it will ever be achieved.

And one more thing: I'm surprised that Michael Moore's 'Sicko' didn't make more of a stir - in fact any stir, it seems. -And that it wasn't mentioned on Moyers' program (or did I miss it?.

As A Retried RN from Michigan who as been a provider of care, advocated for patients, and nurses;
I am appalled by the tactics of Congress to discount our voices as the direct providers of Real health care ;and I don't mean insurance companies,device makers or drug companies.

The CNA has organized efforts via their web site; so that nurses and the citizens who support Single Payer Option, may contact congress via faxes however, our voices are not hear because our congress has turned off the machines or throw out our faxes.
I have emailed all my senators, Levin and Stabenaw requesting a reply;I get none that is are related to Single Payer;
It is like this option is not on the Radar. That I and many others who support this option are not to be seen or heard!
I am sure the American Hospital Association is not treated this way! Or Drug companies that have made huge donations to both Democrats and the GOP.
We Need to Find our Voices and take ourselves to Washington, or Paint a sign on our cars to Show where we Stand.
Many of us cannot afford a trip to Washington DC. since the Bank Bail Outs!
I am Sick alright of the Citizens who don't act and the congress who only listens to their apparent Masters--The Industrial Health Care Complex...

Donna, Thank you for providing leadership on this very important issue. I saw Bill Moyers and because of what I saw and heard I will become more involved.

Very few of our elected representatives are listening. We are being thwarted by the insurance companies. It's time to take to the streets. DJL

You did us proud Donna. Thanks

Sir / Madam:
I am from California and can vouch that we almost had single payer twice, except that the governor vetoed the bill. Of course he gets huge political support from the health Insurane industry. So it is refreshing to see Donna and others stand up for single payer in DC. In the end is it possible to have a trial region SW, SE, Nw. NE. to compete and prove itself against the for profit industry. That industry nodded it's head up and down for about three days then after they had time to think if over decided against reform as proposed by Obama. Mentioning Obama reminds me that on his web site our citizen responses can only be one way which is to support what we don't want. There is NO space to write our own single payer ideas on that mail.
Lloyd Downs

Good for you Donna, thank you so much.

Thank you Donna!

I bring my "Healthcare not Warfare" sign to every peace vigil.

Carry On!

Thank you Donna Smith and keep "pounding." This is the only answer for healthcare. We also need to stop the money flow to politicians from the insurance and pharmaceutical industry.

I am so proud of you all!

Thank you Bill Moyers, for allowing Donna Smith, PDA, and your other guests and groups to speak about single-payer healthcare. I wish our Congress and our President would do the same. I will continue to write and call Congress and the President about the need for HR 676, single payer healthcare. Thank you.

She's my kind of activist with my kind of issue, and I'll do all I can to back
her up!

The issue of single payer health care is so important and nobody in Congress seems to be listening. Why in the hell are we as tax payers not given the same health care as those in Congress? My benefits are nil compared to the monthly premiumn. I never use my health insurance....as I cannot afford the out of pocket expenses. It is so much BULL!!!! Where the hell is the President on this? Get with it Obama....fullfill your campagin promise.

Sincerely

Thank you for all the work you do. It is so hard to understand why they don't want single payer.

Thank you, Eric Massa and John Conyers.

I wish the people you interviewed would spend more time and talk about how this will be paid for! They are good people but need to be specific on the cost and how it will be paid!

As a retired ED nurse, I cannot understand how anyone in their right mind can insist on contining the for profit insurance system. We are in a mess in this country. Single payer is the only system that makes sense. Tying health care to jobs is not the way to go. More and more companies move overseas or to Canada where they don't have to worry about providng health insurance as a benefit of employment.

Again Bill Moyers has put together a brilliant educational program, this time on health care and the democratic process. Donna Smith was superb; no wonder the moguls try to keep her message under wraps. She should be seen and heard by Americans all over the country. The California Nurses may yet win for us another in the endless battle for democracy. Keep it up, and thanks.

I will believe that single payer is not feasible when it is tried. Max B is just wrong.

Dear Donna,

You were eloquent on the Bill Moyer show! Thank you so much for all of your hard work and effort on behalf of single-payer health care for all! My family and I adore you!

Because of your efforts, I'm joining a healthcare march this Saturday, May 30.

Again, thank you for sharing your story with the rest of us and for fighting for single-payer health care!

Sincerely,

Linda Sorenson
lymikel@msn.com

Thank you for articulately voicing the case for including single-payer in the health care reform discussion. Not to do so would simply seem to reflect what's wrong with our political system.

Your interview with Moyers was fantastic. So many of us think we have health care coverage only to find out how lacking our coverage is. Thank you for being brave and appearing on national television to tell your story.

I'm an American citizen living in Canada. My parents were here teaching when my mother gave birth to a hemophiliac back in 1964. We stayed because we couldn't afford to 'go home' because we would never be able to pay for his care and not live on welfare.

We hear Americans saying, oh no, Socialism! about our medical coverage up here. We just shake our heads. We feel like the luckiest people in the world; when we get sick we almost always immediately get the help we need. I'm not saying we never have to wait. It happens. But we get what we need. If it's urgent, our government pays for us to fly to wherever there is space for us to get what we need. Our government still represents US, not just our corporations.

What we see down there in America is rampant greed and the slow death of America by corporate power. The American government controls you, not represents you. The irony of 'socialism' being the big, bad boogie state is that everything that the worst of communism represents to you, you're already starting to have the same form of, but none of the benefits. You are propagandized and downright lied to by your media and your government. You can be legally eavesdropped on, you can be detained without habeus corpus 'the presumtion of innocence and the rights associated with it'. The corporations and your political reps are in it for taking your money but not representing you. This is all clear as day from outside America. The entire world is beginning to hate you because of what your government is doing in your name militarily, without your right to know what that is.

Wake up America. We ALL desparately wanted to believe that Obama is different.....but look at the facts. He's done a few good things, bless him for that, but the corporate war machine is rolling right along, right over you, and public-relationing you and all your fellow citizens to certain poverty and indifferent care. Act now! Save lives!

E. Mervyn,
You sound like many Canadians I talk with because my inlaws are canadians and because of your liberal media only hear the left point of view. I Do thiunk insurance coimpanies need to be reeled in and claim compensations should also be capped but our medical system is far superior to Canada's. I know my wife is a nurse and started her career in Canada and quickly moved to the US. We are now dealing with the Candian health care system. You get no say in your health care options. If you want to see a specialist good luck. It's only if the government deams it necessary. What happened to "freedom of choice". I know this first hand from many of my in-laws that have medical issues that have never been resloved because of the patch work that the Canadian system uses. If you have no choice you have no options, that's why they come to the U.S. to get fixed right. I would rather pay for better health care than to get a 60% level of care because of the folks that refuse to spend some money for insurance. How can you pay for health care if you have to pay so much for your cigarettes. Heavens you shouldn't have to stop smoking just for pay medical insurance RIGHT!
By the way if you think your health care is free you had better add up how much in taxes you pay. State tax, provincial tax, federal tax etc.

America, so far behind the rest of the civilized world when it comes to health care, is run by a majority of politicians so shameful they should back up to take their paychecks.

Just stopping by to show appreciation for your sharing on Bill Moyer's Journal the other night. I have a similar story to yours, only I have somehow managed not to file for bankruptcy; only because I cannot afford an attorney as I have a bunch of back bills due to having to go on disability and being without income several months in a row; trying to raise a pre-teen son on my own - well, that all got real interesting as I'm guessing you've probably already figured out.
Anyway, thanks again for plugging for health care for the masses that makes the most sense, provided the greed and graft is surgically removed from the equation.

Dear Donna,
Thank you for speaking out for SPHC on behalf of millions of americans whose preference is shunned by congress and their lobbyist paymasters. You have a beautiful heart, a sharp mind and crystal clear clarity as you spotlight the healthcare crisis and it's most intelligent and efficient solution, SinglePayer Universal Healthcare. Yours is a voice of sanity and of love. It requires much courage to speak out in our unhealthy political climate, these days. But you are a "light-worker". Courage is light. Love is intelligence. Thanks for yours. Continue to lead, educate and shine so admirably!

This is another great interview that sheds light on the epidemic of moneyed special interest and the lack of American citizens to join in outrage against the corrupt elected officials of our government.

Thank you for the great stories and journalistic excellence.

Pat Duncan

Ask those who are afraid of single payer--what does the health insurance "industry" produce? It "makes" nothing (but paper work). It does not encourage new procedures or medications ("experimental" equals "denial")--nor does it provide care. It dictates to the actual providers of care what they are allowed to do. Everyone seems so afraid of "government interference"---well when Medicare speaks insurance companies listen because they know there will cost savings to them (the insurance companies)--but do those self same companies reduce their premiums to us?
If we want to break through to the "other side" we have to speak in words and concepts they hold dear-hence:
Workman's' Comp---single payer removes the need for this --thus freeing up the cost burden to small businesses and the injured can trust their medical providers
Tort Reform--it removes the need for large medical cost settlements--thus relieving costs to several areas--homeowners insurance with slips and falls--car insurance with legitimate medical costs and the real problem of fraud--cities and other municipal entities won't be as prone to the "deep pocket" lawsuit
Small Business--as the identified engine of economy---being freed from some or all of the Workman's Comp bill ( plus the hours and manpower to deal with the paperwork)-- being able to retain people who might have looked to larger companies or stayed with them because of medical issues --should breathe new life into them.
Doctor/Patient Relationship--the amount of time and effort a doctor's practice has to spend wading through a myriad of arbitrary rules of multiple insurance companies --the five to fifteen minute appointment scheduling which ires the patient (and makes the latter more inclined to sue if things go wrong ) is dictated by the regulations of those insurance companies either implicitly or explicitly. Network coverage-- which doctor is part of which circle of coverage--Surely these are a more direct impediments to the doctor/patient relationship than "Washington".
Unions---if Business sees Unions as the boogey man--one of the strongest selling points of unions to potential members is the health coverage---so single payer takes away some of that steam.
Every time I think of Max Baucus' comments I get so furious I worry about my blood pressure. But what if we could produce a simple commercial (or YouTube video?) that simply scrolls the name of each member of Congress and the Senate (include the POTUS the DNC and RNC as well) with the amounts of money they received from the health "industry"--insurance companies, trade groups, PACs, big Pharm etc. (include seminars and junkets too) next to each name. The audio would be a loop of Baucus' statement "there are no votes for it" --constantly repeating that statement right next to the amounts of money spent should be effective.
Just some thoughts from the peanut gallery--thanks for your time reading this----Nurse Judy
(Tried to post this earlier)

Donna, you did it, held your own and then some! I was IMPRESSED! What a great spokesperson for Single-Payer health care. Keep up the good work, we need all the muscle we can get.

Let's call our Senators and the Pres. They can't give us any leadership for single payer until they figure enough people understand it. They must hear from MILLIONS of us.

They'll need the people's protection from insurance companies' wrath at election time. Are we big and strong enough?

Tell all your friends and get them to raise their voices

Senator Baucus is unquestionably in the pockets (to put it politely)of Big Pharma and the insurance companies. In addition to his current suppression of a Single Payer option, Baucus was instrumental in the Bush regime's Medicare Drug Supplement plan that was a wish list written by the drug companies.

The Montana Democratic Party needs to find someone to replace him.

Thank you Donna - You make me want to get back into the fight! I'm going to Seattle on May 30th as a mother, Medicare recipient, and a citizen activist. Barbara

Thank you Donna !! I hope that "Single Payer or similar plan" comes to pass. I work for the State Of Maryland going on 24 years. I so far have been lucky to be in good health, but reading alot of the fine particulars of health insurance plans that they offer, that it can bankrupt you very quickly from a serious illness. I hope to join you all in the future in Washington, but I have to be careful about arrest due to losing my job. Keep up the great work!!

Thank-you Donna Smith, for standing up for effective universal healthcare, which will NOT be achieved without single-payer.

I saw the show twice so I could be sure not to miss any of your great reasoning as to why Single Payer is the only way to go. I have a conflict on May 30th, but will hope to be an active supporter of your efforts in the future. It's a most important issue and youu present it so beautifully.
Sarah Arnold

Thank you, Donna Smith,for leading the way on single-payer health care. Your eloquence and passion have really inspired me to get involved,especially after I read your story on the Internet about going bankrupt despite being insured.
Our health care system is seriously flawed,and as long as the insurance companies continue their profit-motivated policies,we will have millions of Americans facing illness without the resources to cover treatment.
I think it is outrageous that America is so far behind other nations in terms of providing affordable health care for its citizens,and sadly,Obama and Congress are not listening to the people's demands.
I will do whatever I can to make a difference.

Bill -- thank you so much for making a space for supporters of single payer healthcare to be heard.

Donna -- thank you for being such a great spokesperson for single payer. You talk about the idea from all sides: as a patient, as a caregiver, and as a citizen. Thank you for you devotion to this cause.

Dear Donna, Thanks for being an advocate for all Americans. I am a retired RN and volunteer with organizations that advocate at the city, county and state level for seniors and people with disabilities. I also facilitate support groups for people who have chronic conditions such as Stroke, COPD, Parkinson's and their Caregivers. It is heartbreaking sometimes to see their struggles with the cost of health care even though most of them are on Medicare. WE NEED a Single Payer Health Care Plan. Your efforts are much appreciated. Thanks, Patty

Keep up the good work Donna! There are millions of Americans who need you.

Bill--thank you for talking about the issue that isn't being discussed in Congress or most media, but is being discussed over dinner tables, at work, in carpools, on facebook and over emails!

Thanks to Bill Moyers for bringing Donna Smith to his audience. Donna's
clear, persistent passion for a decent future for all Americans-- through her
travels and speaking out for single payer health care for all-- is a great
example. I'm so glad Moyers' audience got to hear Donna.

Sometimes "coming together" & "compromise" are just words to describe "giving in" to the Big Money Men who practise Totalitarian rule over our lives.

So long as huge corporations pay Billions of dollars for lobbyists & politicians to serve their interests above all others... we-the-people will suffer under their Totalitarian rule.

WE do not have a voice or a choice.
WE do not get a Place at their "Negotiation Table".
WE do not have "leader" among those who decide our Fate, while the Big Money paid to our elected "representatives" buys their Voices & their Votes.

People are told that Our "government is no good", Our "government is the problem not the solution"!
These are Treasonous Terrorist messages meant to defile & negate the government we are supposed to serve while it serves US!

Yet the very people who are there to represent US instead represent the Financial 'interests' that serve only themselves & their own quest for ever ore profits & power over our lives.

More people die every week from lack of health care or poor health care than died in the 911 attacks!
More people die every week from lack of health care or poor health care than died in the 911 attacks!
More people die every week from lack of health care or poor health care than died in the 911 attacks!

they are KILLED by people who put private insurance Profits above the health & welfare of the citizens of this nation. They are KILLED AS SURELY AS TERRORIST BOMBS could kill them by an industry that shackles the People's Representatives in the US Congress, White House, Courts & Press.

But instead of being held responsible for these deaths, they are coddled & served by the very people who should be prosecuting them for their Terrorism against our country.

As long as this continues, ours is not a Nation of the People, by the People, & for the People... as our founders declared we should be. It is a farce & an indecency, a black filthy smudge upon the history & Sacrifice that once made this nation great.

On this Memorial Day, when so many celebrate the life & death & sacrifice of so many who fought & died for the Principles of these United States of America & our posterity... those who were sent to "defend & protect the Constitution" that formed this country & made US great have turned against this Nation & its people in order to gain fortune & power & fame for themselves!

They are TRAITORS who should be hung for the defilement they have brought upon US all.

Are these words too "extreme"? Are they "too negative"? Do they assault the sensitivities of those who would "go along" with the status quo, regardless of how dirty & Corrupt it is?
What does all that matter when even those dead & wounded veterans (& their loved ones) of our for-profit-wars suffer hideously under a government that serves only the interests of those who can Pay the Price in dollars for "favorable legislation" that serves their wishes, no matter how destructive to everyone else.

We are no longer a republic nor a democracy... we are merely a totalitarian bureaucracy built to the specifications of those whose quest for Almighty Profits knows no bounds.

We are a Disgrace to the Founders & all who have suffered & died "for our freedom" throughout the history of this once proud nation.
This is no longer the "Land of the Free & the Home of the Brave"!
It is a land of feudal lords & their serf-laborers & home of cowards & bullies too self-important to care about anyone or anything but their own personal "needs". Who defile freedom & community with stock phrases given them by those who simply use them to foster their own ends.

THIS is "America" today! A nation that devours its young, its bravest, its best to feed the most disloyal, despicable & degenerate among us!

While its 'huddling masses' watch everything they've believed in, worked & sacrificed for throughout their generations fed to the Mad Monsters of Commerce by the those they sent to serve their public & private needs.

"ENOUGH!"
We are at a pivotal point where we either take our Country back or give it up for dead.
"ENOUGH!"
We are either Americans or we are sheep to be hurded into the sheering & slaughter pens.
"ENOUGH!"
It is now or never. Oh yes, it really is.
This "simple" battle for health-care will determine our fate. Because it determines "who wins" in the war waged on US by the "for-profit" forces arrayed against the People's "welfare & greatest good".
WHO WILL RULE our nation when the chambers of government empty & the self-satisfied characters who meet in all their self-importance go home for a summer brake... taking their perqs & their bonuses & all their benefits with them? At Our Expense!

CC *-)

What planet are you on? and what are you smoking???

If we could have a choice of gov health care or whatever we have...in 10 to 15 years, we'd have health care sponsered by the govnment. It will take time. Let's advocate for a choice!

I saw the clip, Donna Smith speaks from first hand expeience with the GREED of the insurers and she speaks from her heart, that's good enough for me. I hope we can all keep up this fight for a basic human right- good health.

Single payer system is NOT the way to go, doesn't work in Canada,England,etc. We have the best health care in the World and Obama and democraps are trying to ruin it! Anytime the Government gets involved in running an entity it FAILS! Medicare is an example.... fraud, abuse,running huge deficits...............How can you believe healthcare will be any different??? This is socialism!
My solution, take all the uninsured and make them an insurable class and include them in with the government plans!

Yeah jamie, whatever. Most Americans are wise to those tired old arguments. Move over, you had you eight years and look where it left us.

Great SHOW. Everybody is talking about this except Congress. Remember we don't even have a system.

How wonderfully articulate you are. Thank you for fighting for all of us. And, thank you for helping with my education on the topic so I can better speak up as I am able.

Single payer is indeed the fairest, most cost effective way to go. Now how do we overcome the powerful money against it?
Jan L Crean MD FACOG (Obstetrician/Gynecologist), Tullahoma TN

Due to the propaganda of the vested interests, the health care status quo is literally killing thousands of Americans every year. The single payer position is the correct policy direction for the nation, but President Obama seems to believe single payer cannot pass Congress, so a fix on the present system is being proposed. This is another round in the class war. We the people need to keep the pressure on Congress,and cast our votes for politicians who will take up our cause.

Nurses and doctors in the streets. What is it that our elected officials don't understand when it comes to single payer health care? There is almost no one I know that is not affected by this issue. Our hands are tied unless we all put our Congress reps on speed dial and call daily.

I don't see any discussion of covering illegal aliens.I have heard from your ex. dir.Tim Carpenter, that the plan would include any illegal that wants it. This is wrong. We will have hordes of more illegals clamoring for tax payer paid health care. I say this is unconstitutional.I say no. You want the entire country to fail just like California.

All single payer will create is that patients will have NO recourse if there is malpractice. Who are you going to sue, the government? RIGHT! good luck. I am an advocate of tort reform so lawyers cannot take advantage of our current system.
My wife came from Canada and is a nurse and believe me she hates socialize medicine. You can call it single payer but it is socialized medicine all the same. Her mother is sick as we speak and she is basically waiting to die because the Canadian government deamed her to old to save. Her father waited 7 months for a heart cath after having a heart attack. This is why their survival rates look good, its because most patients never get the to the treatment table. Many on dialysis have to wiat for months for treatment so many have already died before getting that treatment. Lastly the canadain hospital are very substandard compared to our hospitals. I know I have been in several, have you?
Dan

Fab! Please run it again! More show like this on single payer. Thank you, thank you!
Steve

My wife and I really enjoyed Donna Smith and the two doctors on Bill Moyers Journal and their eloquent and compelling arguments for a Single Payer Health care system. Anyone using common sense must realize that Single Payer is the only way out of the health care mess this nation is facing.

You were grand.... and perhaps you can pass this one around, too:
We would like your help, if possible, one or two ways.

Our House Democrat, Mike Thompson, District One - when asked about Single Payer answered:

"There is no public support for it." and "If 2,000 of you had been here to ask, I might have thought there was."

We are in the process of generating at least 2,000 letters to him From His District -Mendocino, Napa, Sonoma, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Yolo.

If you can put the word out on your site, we would appreciate it.

Thank you,

Nancy Roca, Littleriver CA 95456

Obama and Company are too police, laid back. They must put up politicians’ photos with dollar amounts contributed to them by the industries, while a voice-over explains how these shills espouse the mantra provided by lobbyists. They must hit back, use a stronger defense to the unethical offense of the opposition.

Man’s greed induces a great capacity for self-delusion and self-righteousness. A target who foils the robber, becomes the object of hatred, of the robber’s indignation; and so it is with those congressman and senators who have had campaign contributions (a legal form of bribery) from the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. Lobbyists pressure renegade politicians that they will not get reelected if they do not tow the line, spew their doctrine. Thus many politicians deceive themselves into believing the rhetoric foisted on them by those who fill their campaign coffers. A few do not need to assuage their conscience by deluding themselves; they knowingly mouth the lies fed to them, to assure their reelection.

Why isn’t it obvious to every man and woman, that companies which jointly spend 1.5 million dollars daily in negative advertising and scare tactics, are merely trying to further their own agenda at the expense of the public? This extravagant expenditure on propaganda is extracted from the funds that are supposed to pay the bills for the insured, while companies deny claims of their enrollees. Why is it illegal to shout fire in an enclosed public space, but it is not illegal to shout gross lies through the media (our public airwaves), lies which endanger the health of its listeners? Why are undocumented claims in advertising illegal, like claiming a certain nutrient will make one tall, but politicians, lobbyists, and TV personalities can make false claims against any agenda that doesn’t suit them?

Opponents to the Public Option Insurance Plan make up bizarre lies to convince the frightened public to vote against their own interests, deceiving them into supporting health reform that is more costly and more limited. These lies indirectly put the public in danger by increasing the chances of their becoming sicker due to less comprehensive care.

I need to talk to someone who is truly interested in solving this fiasco... Call me if you want to know how to get out of this mess.
I HAVE BEEN AWARE OF ALL THIS CRAP GOING ON FOR DECADES, YOU FOLKS ARE JUST NOW GETTING AROUND TO IT. You want to get out of this mess then really get in touch with me. I became angry to what was going on when I was a senior in high school, Nov. 1963. Do any of you remember what happen then..? I joined the navy in 1965 to learn as to what was going on. I volunteered to go to Vietnam as an Advisor to get us out of there. I spent 2 tours learning what was happening. I got out in 1975 because I was disgusted with what I found out was going on & struggled all my llife to get people to understand what was going on. To try to find others who had a lick of sense.. It took a long time to get folks to stop being so lackadasical about voting & fighting for their causes. I had been looking for Barack Obama ever since Nov 1963, & he was only 2 years old at the time. It took that long to find someone who has the Balls, the charisma, the character & the intelligence to do what he has done. When I saw himspeak at the July 2004 DNC convention, I realized he was the one. I told my wife & kids he was the one.. I went to see him & Joe Biden everytime they had come to Sioux City. I knew that they were going to be the ticket & told the both the last time they were each here. I have a story to tell that is the truth, the whole truth, & nothing but the truth, if any of you have the time to PAY ATTENTION. I have been studying this in depth for 40 YEARS. I have THE PROJECT that's so easy & deals with everything we need to do, NO IFS, ANDS, OR BUTS ABOUT IT. And I won't lie. YOU HAVE EVERYTHING TO LOSE, IF YOU DON'T PAY ATTENTION HERE.
At the West Middle School in October 2007, here in Sioux City, IOWA with a crowd of 600-700 people, I was the only one who initially stood up & told Barack, I was "FIRED UP" & "READY TO GO" when he made his presentation. As he left the gymnasium, I spoke to Barack in HIS LEFT EAR & told him, "He was going to be the President." I gave him my card, & told him I know how to get us out of this (at that time) $50+ trillion mess. No one even knew what the total cost was, until I stated it at that time. And then THREE WEEKS later, at a private home on Gilman Terrace, here in Sioux City, with maybe 20 folks in the living/dining room, when Joe gave his presentation. (I have always liked & trusted Joe.) Afterwards I did the same thing, I spoke as close to Joe's LEFT EAR as a cellphone, & handed him my card, I told JOE, "You are going to make Barack, the best VP that Barack would ever have." He was annoyed at the time & said he was running for President. I said, I know, but this time he was going to be VP. I handed him my card & told HIM, the job he would need to handle for Barack initially, was the economy, because of the $50+ trillion deficit. Nine months later (JULY 2007) it was finally reported over NPR (National Public Radio) that after seven or eight months, OUR 'FINANCIAL WIZARDS' figured out that our TOTAL national was $53.7 trillion dollars growing 2 trillion a year because we can't keep up with the interest. I didn't even have the figures that the 'WIZARDS' had access to, so how is it that I could figure it out.. Because I had been studying it for many years... You name it, I've been studying it, whatever it took to understand what I needed to understand, I was studying it all, it was in my nature, beyond the threats I received, beyond the financial losses I experienced because of being undermined & maligned, ridiculed, & ostracized, & even fired from my jobs often for my beliefs.
Nothing I speak here is a lie, nor is it far-fetched, because I have a plan & the story to tell, if anyone has the common sense to finally pay attention. I want you ALL to know everything that is happening. I have been trying to warn people about this for years. I was speaking on DEAD EARS.. EVERYTHING I have predicted, has come true. AND even so, I'm astounded. I have told my wife for 30 years, & my 3 daughters & son have lived with my obsession & passion for all their lives as they had begun to think I was crazy. Now they are seeing everything I've ranted about unfolding, They still think I'm crazy but they are coming to recognize so is the media as it is covering what I have spoke of before now most every single day as the truth be told. Come prove me a liar, Do as I say & I will help you earn a million dollars in less than 12 months, just by doing what we have to do anyway. I believe if you have been able to hang on to your common sense & you listen to what I have to say, you'll realize everything I tell you will ease your mind, if you will open it to positive thinking, compassion to EACH & ALL of your family & friends. You will then begin to understand, just how easy it will ALL be to get out from under the negative, mind-stifling, fear-mongering, war & power-mad, greedy monsters, who've literally been eating our children's lives & future treasury, & we can stop it ALL within one year of each of your willing positive, forthright, participation, learning as you go what everyone needs to know & do anyhow or you will remain a dufus while everyone else gets their benefits they earn & deserve, because they have begun to use their minds, instead of sitting on them. Search my site, there is a multiple billion$ of vitally important information hidden on there developed over thousands of years. See if you're smart enough to find the key to unlock the future for your children & grandchildren & ALL of their grandchildren for centuries to come.. I DARE YOU..