UCSD nurse to testify for single-payer system

By Keith Darcé
San Diego Union-Tribune
June 10, 2009

UCSD Medical Center nurse Geri Jenkins will argue in favor of a single-payer health-care system during a congressional hearing this morning in Washington, D.C.

Jenkins, co-president of the 86,000-member California Nurses Association, said yesterday that she will tell the House Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee that a single-payer system meets all criteria for health-care reform set out by President Barack Obama. She will ask the legislators to give the proposal a public debate.

Supporters of the single-payer format want to eliminate insurance companies and establish one health-care provider.

Congressional leaders have said for weeks that the issue is off the table, but Jenkins and other single-payer supporters were granted time in front of the subcommittee after appealing last week to Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.