Sanders to Push for Single-Payer Vote
Nov 3, 2009 - Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will make history this year when he brings a bill that would create a national single-payer health care system to the Senate floor for a vote. Sanders says his bill would insure the 46 million Americans without coverage and could save upwards of $400 million annually by eliminating insurance overhead and medical bureaucracy. There has never been a vote on a single-payer health care system in either the U.S. Senate or the House, according to Mark Almberg, communications director for the organization Physicians for a National Health Program, a national advocacy organization that supports a single-payer system. "We do believe that this could be the first time a single-payer bill gets a vote in Congress," said Almberg, whose organization supports Sanders' bill.