Isn’t it nice when a plan comes together? It’s even better when that plan includes working to implement a single payer health care system in the United States.
Earlier this year, I connected with Julliard-trained actor Michael Milligan and with Cindy Young, the incredible dynamo from Campaign For A Healthy California. It had been my privilege to have met and interviewed each of these fabulous individuals separately. I instantly knew: You two need to talk.
Displaying my Mercy Killers T-shirt. Check out Campaign for a Health California to find out where the play is being performed.
And the result of that connection has led to this magnificent November California run of the powerful play Mercy Killers. As one reviewer wrote:
“Raw, emotional, and devastatingly honest. Broadway actor Michael Milligan’s solo show gives an insight into the destructive personal impact of the American healthcare system. It makes public the private stories of thousands of Americans and shows an urgent need for change in a system failing so many. His performance is incredibly powerful and passionate, sweeping the audience up in Joe’s story; making them laugh sometimes and bringing them to the edge of tears at others. Milligan has written a beautifully moving and thought-provoking piece . . . ”
I saw Mercy Killers last November when Michael donated his time and talent as a fund-raiser for Health Care for All Minnesota, my local activist organization pushing for a single payer system here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. It brought me to tears. I guarantee you, once you see this play, you will become better educated and impassioned to push for single payer in your state. As we are all learning, while the Affordable Care Act takes a baby step toward fixing our country’s for-profit health care delivery system, single payer (Medicare For All) is the only real answer. With every Congressional hearing, with every local and national broadcast of individual stories, I just want to stand up and scream at my television set: Don’t you see how obvious this all is—SINGLE PAYER.
Enough cannot be said for Cindy Young. I invite you to read our profile on her (and while you are at it, her counterpart in Colorado, Donna Smith) to learn more about her passion and commitment to this issue. When single payer finally arrives in this country—and we become like the rest of the economically developed world, it will be the Cindy Youngs who made it happen.
The California tour kicked off earlier this week (November 6 and 7). I invite you to check out the Campaign for a Health California’s web site for the exact times and locations. They are taking the show on the road from Sacramento to San Francisco and back to San Diego. As Michael told me recently: Today we change California. Tomorrow the world. Single Payer In My Lifetime—it is people like this who will make it happen.
To support these efforts, Wisdom Voices will donate $10 from every individual book sale through the month of November. Check it out. Order today and together we will support this fabulous effort.
