Senator Hillary Clinton is the former corporate lawyer from Arkansas, former first lady and current presidential hopeful.

Now that Hillary has revealed her carefully constructed thoughts about healthcare (proposing the continuation of a system that would be barely changed) – we are given to understand that the debate is closed – that those of us who have been organizing for a life-time guarantee - national healthcare for everybody - should accept the inevitable and stop organizing – that single payer is deemed by the press and the political establishment to be unfeasible.

Why is the best plan, single payer, considered to be unfeasible? Because our “leaders,” the people we expect to help us understand a new program, are unwilling to lead on this issue. That’s what makes it seem “unfeasible.”

Single payer is supposed to be off the table now. In effect, the presumption is that single payer doesn’t have a chance even though most people in this country, according to the polls, sincerely want a 21st Century single payer system that would help our healthcare system catch up with the rest of the world’s advanced nations. It is off the table, even though a huge movement similar to the Civil Rights Movement is developing in support of single payer.

Naturally, the single payer movement is not going to sit down and shut up. It is time to remind ourselves again of what we are fighting for. The healthcare plan that is acknowledged to be the best solution – a single payer system - would cover everybody in this country from birth to death, providing much better benefits than any plan offered by the “leading” politicians — either Democrats or Republicans. It would be a much better plan even for those who have the most expensive insurance. It would be better than the Federal Employees plan that covers the Congress because it, too, depends on insurance companies instead of doctors to decide what is needed and what is not. It would even be better than the current Medicare because it would cover more benefits – and the insurance companies would be out of it.

Now the insurance companies are taking large chunks of our Medicare money and putting that money into their profits (Medicare Advantage programs and Healthy Choice programs) – since Bill Clinton and the Congress semi-privatized Medicare in 1997. Medicare is suggested as an option in Clinton’s plan, in the same breath as the phrase “on a level playing field.” I assume the advantages of Medicare’s much less expensive administration would be leveled off to help the insurance companies compete.

Senator Clinton’s main goal is to leave the insurance companies, HMO’s and Big Pharma in the mix, making more profits than any industry in the history of the world – even more than the current war budget. How would HR 676, Congressman John Conyers’ single payer plan, provide greater benefits to every person in this country and save money at the same time? By eliminating the insurance company profits, marketing costs, CEO salaries, and the cost of paying thousands of unnecessary employees to deny our claims - the way they increase their profits.

One/third of the healthcare billions we now pay into profits and advertising and administration would instead be available for covering healthcare for everybody.

And there’s the rub! We don’t need insurance companies. They need us! But shhh! they don’t want anybody to know that.

If we passed single payer legislation, the insurance company executives would have to go find something else to do and someplace else to exercise their entrepreneurial skills. And they would be able to do that quite easily with the hundreds of billions we have poured into their coffers. We’ve given them 60 years to apply managerial skills and efficiency measures to the healthcare system. They’ve squeezed the healthcare system dry. Who has benefited most? I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count.

As long as they are running the show, the insurance companies will find ways to discriminate against somebody. There are lots of different plans being proposed by candidates that keep them making money and controlling our healthcare system. Providing tax breaks and subsidies to businesses and individuals to purchase insurance is one of them. But remember, every one of these plans will discriminate against someone. And a lot of small businesses and individuals cannot pay them and aren’t even able to pay taxes – so they don’t really need a tax break. These businesses and individuals and all of the rest of us need a single payer plan, without insurance company corruption, that covers everybody for everything!

Do lots of people get some healthcare paid for under the current corporate-controlled system? Yes. However, if we had a single payer system, they would get more benefits such as preventive care, mental healthcare, free prescription drugs, dental, optical and hearing care, access to all hospitals, doctors, specialists, therapists, drug and alcohol treatment, long-term care, durable medical equipment - all paid for under a single system available to all of us, without exception.

Would everybody be covered for life? Under single payer, yes! Would discrimination be reduced or eliminated? Everybody would be in and nobody would be out. Would we all pay less money than we are paying now? Indeed. That’s the economic plan! Would we all help pay into it? Yes, we would all pay into it based on our income – a small payroll premium paid by everybody – a type of pre-payment on healthcare whenever we needed it. And we would all be paying less. No co-pays, no deductibles, no denials.

However, under Ms. Clinton’s plan, we would all be mandated, required (yes, forced) to purchase insurance from the insurance companies adding about one-third more to their profits and administrative costs. They would increase their profits by hundreds of billions of dollars when the 50 million uninsured and all of the rest of us who are half-way-insured as well as the 30 million uninsured for a portion of every year would be forced to purchase their product, the ineffective current insurance system.

Ms. Clinton says “most people like their current insurance.” True. Lots of people like their current insurance coverage - until they get sick. Then they find out how much they will owe in co-pays and how they will be allowed to die rather than have their expensive procedures covered. Ms Clinton should look at the petitions on our website where people tell about their experiences with this system. She should look at the stories in “SiCKO” where people who had paid for insurance their whole lives were denied when they got sick.

Would those who couldn’t pay the insurance companies be jailed? – Or would higher taxes on the rest of us cover their required payments through additional taxes? Jailed? Probably no. Harrassed? Probably yes. Paid for by increased taxes? Of course.

In exchange for this big boondoggle, Clinton proposes that the insurance companies be regulated. She proposes that they not be allowed to continue denying people because of pre-existing conditions.

Do you think the insurance companies crawled under the bed and covered up their heads when they heard Senator Clinton’s plan? Did they question whether they should continue to take our money? Did they say, “Oh my, we won’t be able to make as much money as we’ve been making?”

Oh, no! I’m sure they just called their number-crunchers and wrote out another check to her campaign fund.

As they crunched the numbers they decided that they would be making an even bigger killing (even if they had to cover some of the people with pre-existing illnesses and chronic diseases using a small portion of their hugely increased profits.) And I’m sure their CEO’s and number-crunchers smacked their lips and said to themselves, “No problem. We’ll be able to fight down any serious regulations Clinton might throw at us if she becomes president. We’ve been controlling Congress for decades and we will have even more money and power than ever before. We’ll purchase advertising, fool the people, and continue to protect ourselves from any serious regulations.”

Maybe, in exchange for keeping the insurance companies in the picture and in control of our healthcare, Senator Clinton received more hundreds of millions of dollars for her campaign – imagine that! She’s not the only one. Most, if not all of the big candidates, are taking money from these guys. Maybe she also became the front runner because people forgot how badly she botched the opportunity 14 years ago (leaving the insurance companies in her plan). Maybe some people are fooled into thinking that she would be able “fix our healthcare system” without abandoning the failed policies of the past 60 years. We should not be deluded.

There is a serious solution… More on the Clinton plan and the similarities to the Romney plan and the Bush plan and all of the other corporate plans - and how we would be able to pay for the alternative, a real, quality, guaranteed national healthcare system for all - next week. See summary of H.R. 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act.

Marilyn Clement is the National Coordinator of Healthcare-NOW. Click here to contact Ms. Clement and Healthcare-NOW.

Click here to read any of the articles in this special BC series on Single-Payer Healthcare.

Your comments are always welcome.