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FRAMINGHAM - Those who rallied outside the Framingham and Medford offices of U.S. Rep. Edward Markey to get him to become a co-sponsor of a bill that would provide universal health insurance were thrilled when they achieved their goal.

Markey, who represents the 7th District of Massachusetts, signed on last week as a co-sponsor to H.R. 676, the United States National Health Care Act. The bill would create a publicly financed healthcare system by using the Medicare program and expand it to all the nation’s residents.

With his signature, Markey became the seventh of the state’s 10 congressmen that are co-sponsoring the bill written by U.S. Rep. John Conyers, Mi-14. In a statement, Markey said he signed to "send a message that it is unacceptable that more than 45 million Americans are still without health insurance."

Supporters hope Markey’s backing will help build momentum for the bill in the midst of a wave of public interest in health care reform as the Obama administration convenes to discuss its ambitious health care plan, which includes universal health care. The economic woes, with people’s losing their jobs and health insurance packages, are also making people more aware of the need for health care reform, said Benjamin Day, director of Masscare, one of the rally organizers.

"There is not really a good time as this time," said Day. "Not since Hillary Clinton, 15 years ago, has there been such interest for health care reform. People are really talking about it."

Known as "single-payer health care system" or the "Medicare for All," or HR 676, the bill proposes to make the Medicare program, currently offered to people over 65, available to all people living in the United States. The program would be funded through a trust fund similar to Medicare’s.

It’s a proposal that makes sense because it is more cost-efficient and equitable, said Day. Though he supports Obama’s health care plan as the second best option, he’d rather see the "Medicare for All" bill pass.

"Health care should be a right for everyone," he said. "We should pay for it through our taxes, the way we pay for police or firefighters. We don’t have to pay the firefighters to stop the fire in our house. We shouldn’t have to pay every time we go to the doctor."

Between 300 and 500 "Medicare for All" bill supporters live in Markey’s district, said Day. Among them is Mary Burke, a local resident who has been backing the bill since she heard about it, two years ago, when Rep. Conyers introduced it in Congress.

"I want to see everybody covered," said Burke, 61. "Eight million children are uninsured in a country like this. It’s hugely embarrassing."

According to 2007 U. S. Census Bureau data, 8.1 million, or 11 percent of all children in the country, lack health insurance. And so do nearly 46 million Americans, with 80 percent of them being native or naturalized citizens.

Burke said she liked the idea that everyone could have access to health care through Medicare. Paperwork would be standard – reducing time and costs; patients wouldn’t have to worry about whether they’d be covered, and doctors wouldn’t have to be concerned about whether they’d be compensated, she said.

Despite all those benefits and the public’s support for health care reform, many people don’t know about this bill and politicians don’t seem too interested in promoting it, said Burke. She acknowledges it’s going to take work to build support for the bill. Of 435 representatives, only 93 are co-sponsoring it, but even if the House passes it, the bill could stall in the Senate.

"It’s a big undertaking," she said, "but something has to be done."

Katie Murphy, a Brigham and Women's ICU nurse and local community leader, feels the same way. Murphy sits on the board of Masscare.

"We feel somewhat concerned that as the Obama administration talks about health care reform, the single-payer health care bill isn’t at the table," she said. "It’s going to take a huge amount of work and effort to make people look at the benefits of the "Medicare for All’ bill."

Testimonies in favor and against the bill are being held before the Health, Employment, Labor and Pension Subcommittee. Last week, Walter Tsou, national board advisor for Physicians for a National Health Program, expressed his support for the bill saying that "when some congressional leaders declare that ‘single-payer is off the table,’ they’re, in effect, saying that insurers will be protected, leaving the pain to patients, taxpayers, and health care providers."

In the same hearing, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute told legislators that a single-payer model is not the ‘magic bullet’ that American policymakers are hoping for. "Single-payers models are far more complex and inefficient than their American supporters believe them to be," said David Gratzer. "They’re managed and rationed more aggressively than their supporters believe them to be."

A senior lecturer in Social Medicine with Harvard Medical School, Marcia Angell, said the only answer to solve the health care crisis is through a non-profit single payer-system.

"The main opposition to a single-payer system comes from two powerful industries — the private health insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry," she said in her written testimony.

"We live in a country that tolerates enormous and growing disparities in income, material possessions and social privilege," she said. "But those disparities should not extend to denying some of our citizens certain essential services because of their income or social status. One of those services is health care."

It’s going to be an uphill battle, said Day, and more work needs to be done, but the time is right.

"It’s going to take a social movement, similar to the women’s suffrage movement or the civil rights movement," he said. "But we have to keep fighting. Where would the country be if those movements wouldn’t have taken place?"