U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is making history this year when - for the first time ever - he brings a bill creating a national single-payer health care system to the floor of the Senate for a vote. As a compromise on a public-option plan that would allow states to opt out gains steam in the U.S. Senate, Sanders, a Vermont independent, continues to focus his attention on a single-payer bill, although he acknowledges that there are not enough votes to pass it. Sanders says, "That bill will lose. The question, however, will be how much support it will get." Sanders' American Health Security Act of 2009 would eliminate the role of private insurance companies, create a public fund that would insure all residents of the United States, insure the 46 million Americans without coverage and could save upwards of $400 million annually by eliminating insurance overhead and medical bureaucracy.  Unfortunately, it would cut the profits of the health insurance gangsters who lose out in a single-payer plan.