The president stated clearly that "single payer" is the only way to assure every American is covered.

Single payer is also the only option that will reduce costs. Dr. Marcia Angell and Trudy Lieberman, health care analysts and journalists, discussed the campaign for universal coverage from 1948 to the present on Bill Moyers. The opposition and hysteria has been the same at every turn... special interests fearing loss of profit - and the politicians who love them. There can be no true reduction in cost or improvement in care as long as health care delivery is based on profit and not patient health.

HR 676 is a comprehensive single payer bill introduced by Rep. John Conyers with 70 plus cosponsors. It has broad popular support as well as support by practicing physicians, yet has not once been discussed in the current debate!

There is only one thing standing in the way of true reform: single payer coverage. It is not the special interests, lobbyists or even the GOP. It is elected Democrats who lack the courage to defeat them.

Any health care reform bill that does not have a single-payer will be nothing more than another "bipartisan" congressional sellout of the American people in order to protect their corporate benefactors.

The time to act is now!

-- Dan Touse, 4771 State Route 5, Vernon