Kucinich Single-Payer Amendment Passes House Committee

So maybe THIS is what he was up to. Earlier today, an amendment to the House health-care bill that would permit states to institute single-payer health-care systems passed the House Committee on Education and Labor by a vote of 25-19: 12 Democrats and 13 Republicans, including the only other Ohioan on the committee in addition to Kucinich, 11th District Congresswoman Marcia Fudge.

Progressive Democrats of America announced the happy news:
"On Friday morning at 9:45 a.m. ET in the House Committee on Education and Labor, the committee members voted 25 to 19 to pass Congressman Dennis Kucinich's amendment to the healthcare reform bill. This amendment, if it survives the full House, the Senate, the conference, and the President, will not alter the federal legislation except to allow states to create single-payer healthcare systems if they choose to. If this change to the bill makes news, it will pass the Senate, because there is no legitimate argument against it, and the support for it is bipartisan."

This is a not insignificant achievement. Some single-payer advocates rail against anything less than a total national single-payer program because they believe anything else if enacted would kill momentum for single payer. In fact, that did not prove to be the case in Canada where the province of Saskachewan led the way, mandating single payer in 1962, which was eventually expanded to the entire country. Perhaps this is what Kucinich has his eye on; in any case, once again, it appears that he is being more practical-minded than some of his followers.