By Bennett Hall, Corvallis (Ore.) Gazette Times, Sept. 8, 2010

The Mad as Hell Doctors are at it again.

The loose-knit group of Oregon physicians who barnstormed the country last fall to promote a national health plan are planning another road trip, this time to California instead of Washington, D.C.

Although they fell short last year in their bid to push the single-payer system to the forefront of the national health care reform debate, the Mad Docs haven’t given up. At this point, they believe, state-level reforms may offer the best hope for keeping their dreams of universal government-sponsored health coverage alive, and they hope to introduce a single-payer bill in the Oregon Legislature next year.

In the meantime, though, they see California as a key battleground for the issue.

“California’s ahead of the rest of the states, but there’s more than a dozen that are formulating their own bills as we speak,” said Mike Huntington, a retired radiation oncologist and one of two Corvallis physicians involved in organizing the Mad as Hell Doctors.

“I don’t have any delusion that anything Mike and I do, in the short run, is going to result in any policy change — we’re not that delusional,” added his partner, Paul Hochfeld, an emergency room physician at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center.

“But we do think we need to tell people the truth about our sick-care non-system: It’s not working.”

California Senate Bill 810, which would create a single, government-run medical plan, has twice passed the Legislature only to be vetoed by the governor. The bill passed the state Senate again this year, only to be bottled up in the lower chamber.

In order to support their allies in the Golden State — and to keep the idea of a single-payer plan alive for the next legislative session — the Mad as Hell Doctors are planning a 23-city California tour. They’ll leave Oregon on Sept. 22, hold their first rally in Arcata on the 23rd and wrap up their trip in Sacramento on Oct. 12.

They’ll travel in a “care-a-van” of three minivans emblazoned with the Mad as Hell Doctors logo and slogans such as “Where the rubber gloves meet the road” and “Improved Medicare for All = single-payer health care.”

Hochfeld and Huntington expect to be part of a rotating group of activists averaging six to eight people during the trip.

Joining them for the whole ride will be Marc Sapir, a family practitioner from Berkeley, and Philip Kauffman, a grassroots organizer and single-payer activist from Portland.

Among those going part of the way will be Baltimore pediatrician Margaret Flowers, who plans to spend a week with the Mad Docs roadshow. Like Hochfeld and Huntington, Flowers is a member of Physicians for a National Health Program, a group of doctors pushing to replace America’s current hodgepodge of private and government insurance plans with a single tax-supported plan that covers everyone.

To set the stage for their California tour, the Mad Docs will hold a rally this Friday in Corvallis.

The event, which begins at 7 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, will feature a panel discussion on the state of the nation’s health care system and the potential benefits of switching to single-payer coverage.

In addition to Huntington, the speakers will include Dr. Cosimo Storniolo, a Samaritan Health Services internist; Dr. Sydney Piercey, a neurologist with The Corvallis Clinic; Dr. Norm Castillo, an independent family practitioner; and Caroline Zaworski, a nurse with the Samaritan Regional Cancer Center.

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