There are no more excuses for the Democrats.

The Democrats now admit that they control the procedure in Congress and can pass whatever health care reform they want.

Without one Republican vote

And President Obama can sign it.

What should they do?

They should pass single payer.

Everybody in. Nobody out.

For prevention and treatment.

For free choice of doctors and hospitals.

No more premiums, deductibles, exclusions, co-pays, in-network, out-of-network rigamarole.

No more family medical bankruptcies.

No more pay or die.

No more pay or become sicker.

Single payer is the only system that will work.

It’s the most efficient.

Single payer will cut out literally hundreds of billions in administrative fat, billing fraud and unconscionable profits.

These savings will be used instead to insure the 50 million uninsured and the millions more underinsured.

This will save lives.

Starting with the more than 21,000 Americans who die every year from lack of health insurance.

According to recent polls, the majority of the American people want single payer.

So do the majority of doctors, nurses, and health economists.

So, what will the Democrat leadership do?

They will keep single payer off the table.

Because they fear the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry - and want their campaign money - more than they fear the American people.

Or as Speaker of the House Pelosi told reporters last week:

“Over and over again, we hear single payer, single payer, single payer. Well, it’s not going to be a single payer.”

Who is Nancy Pelosi speaking for?

Not for the American people.

Not for those who will die or get sicker month after month.

How are we to respond?

Focus our collective creative energy on Congressional offices around the country — offices of all 435 members of the House and 100 members of the Senate.

That’s why we have set up Single Payer Action.

Less than two months old - and already Single Payer Action is making waves.

In front of Congressional offices from Martinsburg, West Virginia to Seattle, Washington.

On Capitol Hill, standing up to the corporate lobbyists and their lackeys in Congress.

And on the web, challenging the corporate controlled media to put single payer back on the table of public debate.

There is support in Congress for single payer.

Already, 76 House members support HR 676 - the single payer bill in the House.

But the Democratic leadership in Washington has taken single payer off the table.

They meet regularly behind closed doors with insurance and drug industry lobbyists - to thwart single payer.

Time to turn up the heat - and get the word out to the American people.

(Just last week, I was at the University of Colorado in Boulder where I spoke to an enthusiastic audience. Topic: Single payer, full Medicare health insurance for all.)

We need your help now.

To send speakers to all four corners of this country.

To fund organizing drives at Congressional offices around the country.

To shake up the system for single payer.

Last week, many of you responded enthusiastically to a note from my colleague Jason Kafoury by donating $10,000 to Single Payer Action.

Thanks to you, we are a third of the way to our goal of $30,000 by May 14.

This week, we need to expand the base again.

If you have not donated yet to Single Payer Action, please donate now whatever you can — $10, $25, $50, $100.

And notice - if you donate $100 or more by May 14, 2009, we will send you two galvanizing books that concisely detail the case for single payer in America.

• Health Care Meltdown by Robert LeBow, MD, revised and updated by Dr. C. Rocky White - a Republican doctor so fed up with the needless suffering caused by the insurance industry that he has become a leading advocate for single payer.
• Ten Excellent Reasons for National Health Care, Edited by Mary O’Brien and Martha Livingston.

The goal: raise $30,000 by May 14th for Single Payer Action.

To make single payer a reality in America.

Together, we can break the logjam in Congress - and deliver health care to all.

Let’s get it done.

Onward to single payer.

Ralph Nader