Baucus to meet with single-payer health care advocates
By JOHN S. ADAMS
Great Falls Tribune
June 1, 2009
HELENA — Sen. Max Baucus is set to meet with five single-payer health care advocates in Washington, D.C. this week.
Baucus, as chair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, has made health care reform his top priority this session. However, Baucus has consistently said single-payer—a system in which the federal government acts as the nation’s sole health insurance provider—is of the table.
“For more than a year, Sen. Baucus has met with thousands of people, representing hundreds of views on how to reform our health care system,” Baucus spokesman Ty Matsdorf stated in an e-mail. “This meeting is no different. Max hopes to talk, and listen, to these folks to try and find the best way to make sure every Montanan has access to quality, affordable health care.”
Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and a prominent single-payer advocate, is scheduled to attend the meeting.
Angell said the group plans to urge Baucus to give serious consideration to Congress’ two primary single-payer bills, S. 703, by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and H.R. 676, by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.
“We will make a case that there should be full hearings on Sanders’ bill and we’ll make the case that the (Congressional Budget Office) should cost-out the Sanders and Conyers bills,” Angell said in an interview Monday. “We’ll make the case that single-payer advocates should have a chance to meet with the president. We will argue for holding public hearings on health reform that include single payer witnesses.”