Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Prescription for REAL Debate on Healthcare Reform

FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) and local healthcare advocacy groups delivered a petition signed by over 12,500 people demanding that the TV networks include the single-payer proposal in their coverage of the national healthcare debate. The petition's signatories include Obama's longtime physician, Dr. David Scheiner; filmmaker Michael Moore; former MSNBC host Phil Donahue; actors Mike Farrell, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon; and doctors Quentin Young, Stephanie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein of Physicians for a National Health Program.

The petition was presented to a security guard, despite FAIR's efforts to speak directly to an ABC representative with editorial control. ABC News disinvited Dr. Scheiner from its recent forum on healthcare reform, where he'd been planning to ask Obama a question about single-payer.

FAIR, Physicians for a National Health Program, Healthcare Now!, the Private Health Insurance Must Go Coalition, Code Pink and the Raging Grannies all took part in the petition delivery.

For more information www.healthcare-now.org/