Dear Colleague:

We invite you to join in endorsing the "Open Letter to the Presidential Candidates" on single payer national health insurance. After gathering endorsements, we will release the letter to the media and publish it, along with a list of signatories, as an advertisement in major newspapers and magazines.

In this critical election year physicians have a professional obligation to educate the American public on the severity of the health care crisis, and to prescribe an effective remedy.

We seek support from doctors in all specialties. We have already signed up more than 250 physicians in Massachusetts, where this effort began, reflecting disappointment in that state's widely-touted but deeply flawed health reform.

As physicians, we have seen the numbers of uninsured and underinsured soar, costs skyrocket, and quality deteriorate. Meanwhile, doctors drown in a sea of bureaucracy.

It doesn't have to be that way. The United States has an incomparable health care workforce and abundant technical resources. Furthermore, we already spend more than enough to provide excellent care for everyone -- if we had a rational system. But hundreds of billons are wasted each year on private insurance bureaucracy.

What we need is single-payer national health insurance. Only single payer would eliminate the high corporate overhead, profits, and enormous inefficiencies of shifting costs from one payer to another, freeing up funds to cover the uninsured.

Single payer support among physicians is growing. Recently, the American College of Physicians for the first time endorsed single payer reform. Polls of physicians in both Minnesota and Massachusetts have found that nearly two-thirds favor single payer, mirroring a recent AP poll in which 65 percent of the public supported "guaranteed, taxpayer financed health care program like Medicare" for all Americans.

With discussion of health reform back on the front burner, physician activism is more critical than ever before. A striking display of support for national health insurance can help reshape political debate to reflect its wide popularity. As lesser reforms -- such as that in Massachusetts -- predictably fail, it's especially important to deliver the message that real reform can work.

Please join in this initiative. The health of our patients and the future of our profession is at stake.

Sincerely yours,