'Medicare for All' speaker Dr. Margaret Flowers in Charlotte tomorrow

Single-payer health care is the system that is used in Canada and Great Britain and, in modified forms, in much of the rest of the civilized world. Ted Kennedy once said that his ideal national health care system would be “Medicare for all,” by which he meant a single-payer system that would expand on what the country already offers seniors. During the “recent unpleasantness” — a term once used to describe the Civil War, but which I’m now applying to the health care reform debate — single-payer was never on the table. Progressives conceded that it couldn’t pass the current Congress, seeing that our national lawmakers are afloat in money from the insurance and medical industries. So we got behind Obama’s efforts and promises to revamp the health insurance industry. And then we got screwed — no public option, no serious cost controls to speak of, millions still left with no health care. Thank you very much, Mr. Guy We Worked Our Butts Off To Elect.

That disappointment hasn’t dimmed progressives’ desire for a single-payer system, however, and it seems fitting that in this 45^th anniversary year for Medicare, new efforts to expand the program to all Americans are afoot. Tomorrow, one of the leading figures in that effort, Dr. Margaret Flowers, will be in Charlotte, speaking in various venues about single-payer, and rallying the troops, so to speak.

At 9 a.m., Dr. Flowers will be the guest on Charlotte Talks with Mike Collins on 90.7FM WFAE. She will also lead a seminar titled “Universal Health Care: The Only Solution,” at UNC Charlotte, from 12:45 p.m. till 1:45 p.m., in Room 380 of the College of Health and Human Services. Then, from 4 p.m. till 5 p.m., Dr. Flowers will speak at Queens University on “National Health Insurance: Has the Time Come?” Finally, at 7 p.m., she will speak on “Health Care for All” in the Myers Park Baptist Church sanctuary. They’re all free, so take your pick and find out more.