Single-payer health care advocates in the Valley are not amused by U.S. Rep. Richard Neal's way of parrying questions about why he has not supported HR 676, the Improved Medicare for All Act—a bill to reform health insurance by instituting a single-payer system.
A hundred people from the Upper Valley and the Springfield area, including members of advocacy groups like the Franklin-Hampshire Health Care Coalition, Arise for Social Justice and Neighbor to Neighbor, rallied at the Federal Building in Springfield May 27 to demand that Neal support the bill. Neal had been notified about the rally but didn't show, and declines to discuss his nonsupport for HR 676.
"That morning he knew [the rally] was coming, and he issued a statement that said nothing," said Jon Weissman of Western Mass. Jobs for Justice.
The Advocate received the statement that said nothing, and a followup statement that said hardly more, when we tried to contact Neal about HR 676. A sample: "Congressman Neal supports President Obama's goals on comprehensive health care reform and would like to give him the chance to have his plan succeed. … The overwhelming majority of Americans agree that our health care system needs to be reformed now. There is an urgency to have a bill passed quickly, and Congressman Neal hopes to see action taken by the end of August."
No discussion of HR 676, its merits or flaws. No nuts-and-bolts chat about what's needed to make a health reform bill work. Only the unsurprising "news" that Americans want reform and that Neal is cooperating with his party boss, the president.
The point here is twofold: first, Neal, whose top three donor industries in the 2007-2008 election cycle were insurance, financial services and health care, is taking a walk on a single-payer reform bill. Second, he's doing what he seems to have done more and more as his incumbency has solidified: not engaging, not answering probing questions, speaking in his district only to friendly audiences and on terms that he himself can set.
