(If you know anyone in the 4th Berkshire State Rep. District, let them know they’ve got a candidate who will lead the charge for single-payer healthcare and vibrant, green, forward-looking politics and public policy. – promoted by eli_beckerman)

My election to State Legislature in November of this year as a Green-Rainbow  candidate will greatly advance the prospects for single payer health care in  Massachusetts and in the United States.

(Update: July 7, a non-binding policy question on single payer health care will be on the Nov 2 ballot in the 4th Berkshire District.  Read more…)

There are many groups advocating for single payer, but they often focus their efforts on lobbying incumbents to co-sponsor a bill, or they focus on educating a few candidates seeking the few open seats that arise.   They are not making progress.  We are further than ever away from the kind of health care security that citizens in most other advanced democracies enjoy.

My election will be a more powerful boost to the cause than would be the garnering of even twenty more co-sponsors to the bill.  History has shown that co-sponsorhip is not enough; leaders must be vocal and strong because the opponents are vocal and strong.  Most of the so-called “supporters” of single payer health care are silent on the issue, except for when they’re asking for votes.

Our nation’s debate over the last several decades, the success of Medicare, and the experience of other nations in implementing a single payer health care system, has convinced me that such a system – a comprehensive Medicare for all – is the right policy for Massachusetts and for the United States.  Single payer costs less and delivers more.  I have lived in countries that offer it and have seen the benefits first-hand: universal access to care, no cost barriers to getting care, no medical-related personal debt burdens or bankruptcies, and longer life expectancy.

The Green Party of the United States and the Green-Rainbow Party in Massachusetts are unequivocally for it.  I will be a fervent ally and advancer of this important issue.

Single payer health care features prominently in my campaign, and its advance will be prominent when I am in office.   It is a major part of the public infrastructure supporting private enterprise that I have written about.   I will not only co-sponsor appropriate single payer legislation; I will be a vocal and ardent supporter in the public debate, and I will loudly de-bunk the many myths that are spread by those who profit from the status quo.  Just you all wait to see what my town hall meetings will look like.

Have Bay State advocates for single payer health care taken note of the capitulation of Dennis Kucinich in last month’s health care vote in Washington?  No one on the Congressional stage was a more passionate spokesman for single payer health care than Kucinich; however, his party leadership forced him to back down.  As a green, I do not have that problem with my party leadership; we are united in our support for single payer health care – from local levels, through state levels, and  to the national level.

I doubt that there are many so-called supporters of single payer health care in the State Legislature on Beacon Hill who have more spine than Dennis Kucinich did.  Clearly, the strategy needs a change in course.  Kucinich’s capitulation was a sad moment.  I met the Congressman personally on several occasions, I set up a campaign office for him in Western Massachusetts during the presidential primary season in 2008, and campaigned on the streets of New Hampshire for him.  I found no sincerity in the statement that he issued to explain his reversal.  I hope he decides to join the Green Party of Ohio, where he will find a better political home.

I welcome the support of advocates for single payer health care in Massachusetts.  I realize that most groups cannot make endorsements, but I look forward to being part of the voter education that is done, and to receiving support from individuals in the movement.