After last week’s dramatic Affordable Care Act proceedings in Washington, DC, health care will take center stage on Vashon, when the Backbone Campaign presents a documentary and community discussion about single-payer health care next Tuesday.

The documentary to be shown is called “Now Is the Time: Healthcare for Everybody,” which delves into the problems of U.S. healthcare, what single-payer health care is, and how supporters say it will save money and provide better health care than the current market-based model. A panel discussion will follow the 70-minute film and feature islanders involved with public health. Dr. Jessica Wesch and Dr. Baruch Roter of Neighborcare and Betty Capehart of Physicians for a National Health Plan- NW Chapter will speak on the state of health care in Washington and how islanders and others who wish to can organize to help create such a system.

Organizers note that people sometimes confuse single-payer health care with socialized medicine, but the two are not the same. With single-payer health care, sometimes called “Medicare for all,” the government, or other publicly funded entity, pays for health care for all residents. In socialized medicine, the government provides the health care — different than simply paying for it.

Roter, who works as a physician half the year, including at Neighborcare, worked for 25 years in nonprofit sliding scale health centers. He said he has believed for decades that single-payer health care is the solution to this country’s health crisis. He spent 10 years as an activist on this issue and was part of the inaugural board of the organization Physicians for a National Health Program. He said he wants the evening to be informative about what single-payer health care is, as it is a subject with a lot of complexity to it.

“This is a real opportunity to understand it better,” he said. “It is not to talk people into something, but just to share information and get people’s questions answered.”

Bill Moyer, who heads the Backbone Campaign, said that this is a good time to show such a film and begin a conversation about change, noting that Republicans have focused on the flaws of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but have not presented any options for improving the health care picture.

“They are failing to deliver an alternative, and the alternative is not a great mystery,” he said.

Roter, Moyer and others interested in moving to a single-payer system say that access to health care improved for many under the Affordable Care Act, but it has substantial flaws: not everyone is covered; deductibles and co-pays continue to make it expensive for many people, and sometimes networks of doctors included in a plan are so thin they leave out whole specialties — making out-of-network care an expensive necessity. Some critics, including one highlighted in the film, say the tiered health plans offered through the ACA’s governmental health plans are tied to class and race, with some people getting better health insurance and others getting worse.

Economist Gerald Friedman, who teaches at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and has done considerable work on the single-payer model, is included in the film. He addresses the ongoing cost of care for many people, even those who are insured.

“When you eliminate copays and deductibles, the uninsured go to the doctor,” he said. “People who go to the doctor live longer.”

From his experience as a physician, Roter concurs, saying when people do not have money for the care they need, they do not really have access to care, and what might start as a manageable health issue grows larger. Even with insurance, people are often hesitant to have blood work done or undergo imaging studies — and he said he is hesitant to prescribe them, sometimes delaying diagnosis. Then, he said, mild chest pain might become a full-blown heart attack, and an early cancer may spread.

But he believes the answer is clear.

“Staring right at us is the simplest, most powerful solution,” he said.

In a single-payer system, he added, the focus is on how to best provide care with the dollars available. But for insurance companies, which operate on the for-profit model, the bottom line is money.

Many involved in the quest for single-payer health care believe that it will take root first in states and then move to Washington, DC. In fact, Moyer said he is on the board of an organization called Whole Washington, which is working to create a single-payer health care system in Washington State. He added the group is working for a measure to be on the ballot in 2018.

Moyer noted that neither of Washington’s senators have indicated they will lead on this issue, and he said it is time for people who want a single-payer system to take action.

“It is an important time for our representatives to know where people stand and build a movement from the bottom-up,” he said, adding, “The lack of progress more reflects lack of leadership and the corruption of our election system and corporate money in politics than the needs of people in this country or state.”

According to a June article from the Pew Research Center, 33 percent of Americans favor the single-payer model, up 5 percentage points since January and 12 points since 2014. The same article noted that 60 percent of Americans believe the federal government is responsible for ensuring health care coverage for all citizens.

Moyer, speaking more personally about health care, said he believes that the relationship between provider and patient is supposed to be sacred, but more and more providers must shift their focus to satisfying insurance companies.

“We have undermined the sacred relationship of patient and doctor, and nobody wins,” he said.

All islanders are welcome at the film and discussion next week.

The film will be shown at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 8, at the Vashon Theatre. Admission is by donation to the Backbone Campaign.