It is just one of the many battles that single payer advocates have won over the years... But this one is no less important than any of the others. It is not a huge victory, but we should note even the small wins when we have the chance.

Yesterday After Downing Street and Corrente confirmed that John Conyers was our first and only single payer advocate invited to the big healthcare summit today.

Google. After Downing Street, interestingly.

So now, call 'em again and ask why not PNHP? Or Health Care Now? Heck, not even HCAN't? What's wrong with these people? Why can't ordinary citizens get a seat at the table?

The White House (202) 456-1414 or (202) 456-1111. Remember, if you've got a rotary phone, you always get to soeak to a human!

NOTE Hat tip, DCBlogger.

But it gets better below the fold...

An email circulated amongst COMA-CT and PNHP supporters yesterday aft.:

Because of all your calls and emails, Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), our ally in support of single-payer healthcare, received word that Dr. Oliver Fein, president of PNHP, has been invited to participate in tomorrow's White House summit on healthcare. He will therefore be joining Rep. John Conyers in the meeting as a strong advocate for a single-payer healthcare.

Given this development, the demonstration outside the White House that was planned for tomorrow is cancelled.

While the number of single-payer advocates in the summit will be few in number, we feel we have won an important victory and that demonstrative activity at the White House may be important in the future, but will not be appropriate for tomorrow's healthcare summit.

Remember, a clear majority of physicians and Americans support Medicare for all. The representation of single-payer at all (and future) healthcare gatherings should reflect this support. Our work has only just begun.

Please continue to urge your members of Congress and President Obama to support single-payer national health insurance, the only solution to our healthcare crisis. Please continue to organize in your community and congressional district to support HR 676.

Mark your calendars for the next national call-in day to Congress on Tuesday, March 10th. We will also ask you to fax your insurance bills to Congress. Stay tuned for details!

If you are in Washington, DC, please join us to demonstrate in front of the American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) Conference on March 10th at 11am (Ritz Carlton - 1150 22nd Street, N.W. Either Dupont Circle Metro or GWU/Foggy Bottom Metro).

Thanks to everyone who called and e-mailed the White House about including single-payer views at the summit - you helped make this victory happen!

Showcasing the President's commitment to opening up the process and enabling all Americans to hold their leaders accountable, the healthcare summit will broadcast on C-SPAN and on the web.

Obviously they heard form a lot of people. You can be sure that much is going on behind the scenes for this to have happened, we just need to keep spreading the word about HR 676.

Yes! The thousands of squeaky wheels calling in are getting the grease...

Just a note to you that read down this far: First, THANK YOU! For calling when I or others here asked you to. And for Rec's and constructive comments, ideas, ongoing diaries, and everything else that we all try and do together to keep these political types in D.C. working for us.

And second, I apologize because I should have posted this yesterday, here, but I was kind of busy babysitting my own Blog and ePluribus Media's, while trying to help the final push towards getting Single Payer representatives a seat at the table. 2 out of 120 people being there to represent "us" is a whole lot better than what we would have been looking at without all of the phone calls, letters, emails and general polite harrassment that everyone across the net provided for the cause. To give you an idea how many were calling in about this - it took me about seven times to get through (busy signals) yesterday, and when I finally got through they knew where I was going as soon as started talking.

Many of you at TPM recognized and acted on this issue early on, calling in with messages of "Single Payer IS on the table!" and sharing your health care stories with us and them. For that I am doubly thankful to you, and we will hopefully see the payoff as the Health Summit kicks off today.

Single payer may not end up being what we get in the end... But, at the very least, single payer leaders are at the table because of this internet-wide sustained effort.

Now... Pat yourselves on the back and get back to work you slackers! lol jk