COOS BAY — Health care reform advocates served up music and meat Tuesday night as part of an effort to raise awareness about a single-payer system.

Folksingers from Grants Pass, California, Texas and Pennsylvania urged people to call their federal legislators, holding a placard with a giant phone number to emphasize the point. Members of the Coos/Curry Single Payer Action Committee gathered signatures, handed out pamphlets and grilled burgers and hot dogs.

The organizers favor a single-payer health care system, arguing it would save money by cutting out insurance companies and spending tax dollars on health services.

It was one of more than two dozen stops along the Sing Out for Single Payer Road Show, featuring folksinger/activist Anne Feeney and the Green Mountain Grass band.

Helping to organize the event was Rick Staggenborg, a VA psychiatrist at the North Bend clinic. He suggested the issue of promoting a single-payer system shouldn’t be a divisive one.

“Everybody is getting the shaft in the current non-system,” he said.

A single-payer system creates a pool of funds to pay for health care, rather than other proposals that involve private health insurance. Staggenborg argued such a system would encourage patients to see a doctor sooner, so they could prevent larger, more expensive  problems from developing.

The musicians and Staggenborg both complained that U.S. elected officials have accepted millions of dollars from insurance companies in campaign donations and are expected to produce reform. They are skeptical officials can objectively do that.

Staggenborg suggested some of the reform proposals being considered are little more than bailouts for insurance companies.

“They can’t make it on their own and they aren’t even necessary,” he said.

Joining in the evening’s festivities were several members of the Veterans for Peace chapter of Bandon. Bob Fischer said he came along because of his concern for veterans who are out on the street in need of health care.

“The VA doesn’t seem to take care of them,” he said. “Single-payer could.”

Before leading into the open number with lyrics like “The rich folks live and the poor folks die,” Feeney explained that she’s fought for a number of causes over the years, including anti-war and pro-labor. She said health care is in critical need of reform, though she’s encouraged by the number of people who have come out since the tour started July 2 in Southern California.

“If everyone put in as much energy as these musicians, we would win,” she said.