Not just a moral imperative, but an economic imperative; that's what President Barack Obama said about health care reform at the national summit on health care March 5. After that conference, the next step was to be a set of regional forums on health care in Vermont, North Carolina, Michigan, Iowa and California, hosted by the governors of those states.
In Vermont, Gov. Jim Douglas and Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick were to be co-hosts of the forum held at the University of Vermont in Burlington March 17. On their original invitation lists, neither Douglas nor Patrick included representatives of groups advocating a single-payer system, though those groups are well established and have vocally participated in discussions of health care reform for years.
Very late in the game last week, a few single-payer advocates were invited to the Vermont conference after much prodding and the threat of a demonstration.
Diana Stein, a specialist on health care reform with the Amherst League of Women Voters, described Patrick's original omission of single-payer advocates on his list of invitees as "unconscionable" at a time when the Massachusetts budget has been devastated by the faltering economy.
"If we went to single-payer, we would save $9 billion a year, and that's something the governor should not turn his back on hearing," said Stein.
