Single-payer advocates disrupt Senate Finance Committee.

Doctors, Single Payer Activists Arrested, Make History at Senate Finance Roundtable

It has finally happened right here in the United States. Citizens who believe healthcare is a human right have been arrested and are being processed like criminals through the Southeast District of Columbia police station. Their crime? Asking for single payer healthcare reform — publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare — to be discussed during the Congressional hearings on reform.

Doctors and other single payer activists were handcuffed and went to jail today speaking up for single payer to be at the table in the Senate finance Committee’s roundtable discussion on healthcare access and coverage. In stark contrast, Karen Ignagni, head of the industry lobby group American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) was escorted into the room like royalty by staff members of the Senate committee….

…It made me physically ill to see Maryland pediatrician Margaret Flowers cuffed like a criminal and pushed out the door as the Senators waited to begin their staged roundtable discussion. It made me want to scream. It made me proud of them for being bold but ashamed that not one Senator spoke up for their own citizen-protestors and asked that they at least be allowed to speak. But the insistence that the citizens rising in protest be arrested continued from the chair with each incident.

Simply asking to have single payer be included and fully vetted is a crime. Profiting as the for-profit health insurance companies do at the expense of 22,000 American lives every year, however, gets you a run of the table in this healthcare reform discussion. Just ask the Senators who are drafting what this nation’s health system will look like — and watch their behavior today — if you want evidence of how your voice will be heard in the process….

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/may/doctors_single_paye.php

I believe that healthcare is a human right, along with many other rights, but I don't believe that the gov't or any other taxpayer has any obligation to pay for my rights.

I also don't believe that the definition of a right means I can behave like a drunken sailor and shout over the normal order of things.

Were they arrested for creating a disturbance maybe?

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Eight advocates of government-run health care disrupted a Senate hearing Tuesday on health-care coverage, complaining that their viewpoint was shut out of Senate debate on the issue.

One-by-one, the eight people stood up just before a Senate Finance Committee hearing and spoke in favor of so-called "single-payer" health care - a system by which the government would provide health insurance for everyone and essentially supplant the private insurance market. The Finance hearing is a "roundtable" in which 15 witnesses are set to testify on health care coverage.

"You have 15 seats at the table and not one for single-payer," said one man, before being escorted from the committee by U.S. Capitol Police.

The single-payer supporters, dressed in business attire, were able to interrupt the hearing by spreading throughout the hearing room and staggering their protest speeches. Just as one protestor was taken out of the room by police, another would stand up and start talking.

Single-payer health care proposals have seen little-to-no footing in congressional debates on overhauling the U.S. health-care system, though many Democrats favor the creation of a public insurance plan to compete alongside private insurers. …

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090505-711710.html

No, they were not arrested for "asking for single payer healthcare reform," they were arrested for disrupting a Senate Committee hearing and refusing to step down, despite being repeatedly asked to do so.

Those who engage in civil disobedience must fully expect to be arrested and held accountable for their actions. These activists got exactly what they wanted.

Does it not strike you as ironic that a Democrat chairs this committee and Democrats outnumber Republicans in seats held, yet those very Democrats chose not to include a "single-payor advocate" on the panel?

All of them were out of order...without exception.

The Senate Progressive Caucus prefers a single-payer system, but they are aware of Obama's opposition to the idea. They are also aware how it went when Hillary tried to promote the idea the first time.

They might also be aware of how every regional attempt at a single payer in the US has failed straightaway.

And it's not as if this has been the only hearing on the issue, or that it will be the last.