Web Letters: Betting on Healthcare

I couldn't agree more. When I read Cooper's article in The Nation, I was appalled. Obviously, Mr. Cooper has taken it upon himself to skew the report. All one has to do is to look at the video available on Kucinich.US of his speech at that forum to find that he is as specific as you can get about a single-payer system of health care. What he states as his first imperative is getting rid of the insurance companies who drain health care dollars with administrative costs. I do not believe Mr. Cooper has the proper objectivity in this article and does a profound disservice not only to Congressman Kucinich but to The Nation. When I read his blatant dismissal of the Congressman's health care proposal, my first instinct was to blame the editors of The Nation for not properly vetting his statements.

I would think the way to redress this unfortunate episode would be to print the Congressman's own bill on health care.

stephanie rivera

Richmond, rhode island

Marc Cooper, in my experience of reading his articles and hearing him on KPFK in Los Angeles, one of the Pacifica stations, is not an honest broker as a journalist. He has no hesitation in distorting his reports to his biased opinion, whatever it may be on any issue.

In the report on the Center for Progress' Presidential Forum, Cooper says, "Representative Dennis Kucinich was the only candidate at the forum to propose a single-payer system, but he provided no details on how it would be achieved or financed."

This is a distortion of what Kucinich said, "So I ask you, is it constant with America's greatness that candidates step away from the one solution that could change it all? A not-for-profit health care system is not only possible, but HR 676, a bill that I introduced, and a number of Congressmen, the Conyers-Kucinich bill, actually establishes Medicare for all, a single-payer system and it's a not-for-profit system. It's time we ended this thought that health care is a privilege. It is a basic right, and it's time to end this control that insurance companies have not only over health care but over our political system." http://www.americanprogressaction.org/events/healthforum/kucinich_transcript.html

Of all of the candidates, he is the only one to have actually introduced a single-payer bill. It is very detailed and was recently re-introduced into the 110th Congress and the text is and has been for several years easily available. The basic details are very obvious in his speech: Put all Americans into Medicare; the bill details the financing in its Section 211-existing federal healthcare revenues, increased personal income taxes on top 5%, modest payroll tax, small tax on stock and bond transactions.

Marc Cooper would like not to be seen as an establishment media person, but like other such reporters, he does not want Kucinich to be taken seriously and given any respect.

Either he should reform his ethics or the Nation should not publish him alongside of other contributors who are honest.

Margalo Ashley-Farrand

Portland, OR