November 7, 2007 (LPAC)--The coalition backing Rep. John Conyers H.R. 676 increased its pressure on Democratic Presidential candidates to adopt a single-payer universal health care plan for the United States. The escalation came at a November 6th event at the Washington D.C. National Press Club to announce the release of the DVD version of filmmaker Michael Moore's devastating critique of the U.S. Healthcare industry. "SICKO". Moore, who was on a live satellite hook up, was introduced by Conyers (D-MI), and leaders of the Physicians for a National Healthcare Program and the California Nurses Association, who are leading the grass roots mobilization for the passage of HR 676.

Moore began by saying that it boggled the mind that the SCHIP children's health program, which would extend health coverage to uninsured children, is threatened with a Presidential veto, and that something so fundamental can actually be the subject of debate in the Congress. He cited the fact that poll after poll has shown that Americans favor a universal health care system, and that we need to move forward with this as a nation, despite the opposition of the health insurance industry and a number of right wing republicans.

Moore in his sharp satirical style poked fun at the efforts of Republican Party presidential frontrunner Rudy Giuliani to distort statistics, to claim that his treatment for prostate cancer would not have fared well under government controlled "socialized medicine," such as the Canadian system. However, Moore cautioned it is not just the Republican candidates that need to be held accountable. Much work, he declared, needs to be done in the Democratic Party, particularly with the Presidential candidates.

While all the so-called major Democratic candidates claim to have a universal health care plan as part of their program, Moore pointed out that in every case (with the exception of Congressman Dennis Kucinich, an HR 676 co-sponsor), the rhetoric conceals the fact that the rapacious health insurance companies "remain at the table," and will control whatever national resources are devoted to health care. "If you give the other side a little bit, Moore declared, "that is not the end of it. They will control the game."

Following the press conference the HR 676 Coalition members departed for Capitol Hill, with the intention of getting a copy of the "SICKO" DVD and information on HR 676 to every member of Congress. Many then attended the National Convention of American Public Health Association, ongoing at the Washington D.C. Convention Center, where Physicians for a National Health Program held a standing-room-only work shop, and where Congressman John Conyers presided at a meeting of the P. Ellen Parsons-Memorial Session where HR 676 was again discussed.

LPAC organizers had a major presence at both the press conference and the Convention. Hundreds of copies of the HBPA legislation were handed out, and numbers of people became contacts to work for its passage both in local elected bodies and in Congress.