"In the United States Senate, we have one huge hero,” Donna Smith of the California Nurses Association told a Capitol Hill rally on Thursday.  You may remember Donna Smith from “Sicko,” Michael Moore's documentary on the dysfunctional health care system in America. The 2007 movie recounted how Donna and her husband, Larry, were forced to move into the basement of their daughter’s home in Denver after they lost everything following major illnesses and surgeries. She had cancer. Larry had heart disease. Although they were insured, they went bankrupt. Today, she works as a community organizer for the California Nurses Association, a leading advocate of a single-payer program. Donna Smith is “one huge hero.”

She talked about the single-payer concept, which has been likened to Medicare for all Americans, during an interview earlier this year with Bill Moyers. “It's a great idea from the left, which is public financing, combined with a great idea from the right, which is private delivery. And you put it together in one system that takes out the waste and the abuse that's really happening, which is where all the money goes into the health insurance. Up to 30 percent of the costs have nothing to do with health care at all and everything to do with fueling the health insurance needs,” she said.
 
Senator Bernie Sanders made the same point when he told the rally that single-payer should appeal to progressives and conservatives alike.

To watch Smith introduce Sanders at the rally, click here.

To read the Bill Moyers interview with Donna Smith, click here.