The majority of Americans receive health insurance coverage through their employers but with rising health care costs many small businesses can no longer afford to provide coverage for their employees.

Originally created to serve the poorest and sickest among us the Medicaid program has grown dramatically but still doesn't include the kind of flexibility that states need to provide better health care for the poor and disadvantaged.

As a single-payer advocate I believe that at the end of the day if a state goes forward and passed an effective single-payer program it will demonstrate that you can provide quality health care to every man woman and child in a more cost-effective way.

If the goal of health-care reform is to provide comprehensive universal health care in a cost-effective way the only honest approach is a single-payer approach.

I basically believe the medical insurance industry should be nonprofit not profit-making. There is no way a health reform plan will work when it is implemented by an industry that seeks to return money to shareholders instead of using that money to provide health care.

And under the existing circumstances I understand there are situations where people indeed need care and need services but I believe in America that the majority of those people are getting those services under situations and circumstances that are afforded to them by their health care providers and their state government.

Most American diets even bad ones provide more than enough calcium for bone health especially for men.

When the Veterans Affairs Department implemented a program to provide home-based health care to veterans with multiple chronic conditions - many of the system's most expensive patients to treat - they received astounding results.

I learned that people everywhere are basically the same and have similar goals that we do. They want health and happiness and the opportunity to provide for their families.

A sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruction of our political system as would provide for the permanent liberty and happiness of the United States.