Flowers to host hearing on single-payer health in Illinois

According to The Southern Illinoisan:

State Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago, plans to host a public hearing in Carbondale next week that gauges people's interest and support in forming single-payer universal health care for Illinois.

The hearing on House Bill 311, set for 7 p.m. Thursday, June 25 at the Carbondale Civic Center, is meant for people share with Flowers what they think is wrong with the existing health care system and suggestions on how it might be fixed.

A single-payer plan would eliminate the need for insurance companies. Protestors rallied for the plan earlier this week as President Barack Obama spoke to the American Medical Association in Chicago.

Obama is advocating for a national option, but in 2003, he voiced his support for a single-payer plan.