From:
Greener Times for the Week of August 13 - 19
an e-publication of the Green Party of Washington State (GPoWS)
Trey Smith, Editor, GreenerTimes@wagreens.us
How to solve the US health crisis by enacting a Single-Payer National Health Plan:
- A Single-Payer National Health Plan (also called Medicare For All) will provide guaranteed quality health care to all Americans, regardless of employment status, income, residence, ability to pay, age, or prior medical condition. Single-Payer will also allow full choice of medical provider.
- Single-Payer payer will be less expensive for working Americans and for business, because we won't have to pay for HMO-insurance company profits, big CEO salaries and bonuses, and administrative waste.
- Single-Payer makes it easier for your doctor to get paid, and it doesn't require your boss to provide health coverage.
- Single Payer is an investment in preventive medicine -- it creates an incentive for keeping Americans healthy!
The GREEN PARTY is the only national US party that supports Single-Payer. The Green Party and Green candidates don't take contributions from HMOs, insurance companies, or any other corporations.
If you want Single-Payer, help elect Greens to Congress and to your state legislature! Support Green presidential candidates! When Democrats and Republicans have to compete with Greens in elections and work with Greens in public office, they'll be more likely to support Single-Payer.
Millions of Americans will see 'Sicko' this summer. Nearly everyone has a horror story about trying to get health care, or knows someone with a horror story: denial of treatment, lack of coverage, HMO and insurance bureaucracy and paperwork, huge fees, loss of life savings because of illness or injury.
As 'Sicko' shows, corporate HMOs and insurance companies make their profits by denying and restricting health care to people who already have coverage, and by refusing to cover people who need health care the most. We're paying for health care, but we're not getting it!
Eighty cents of every health care dollar pays for private health insurance profits, paperwork, and bureaucracy. (Cost of Medicare administration: 3%. Cost of private insurance administration: 30%) That's why more and more physicians and employers are endorsing Single-Payer.
Don't believe the lies! HMO and insurance lobbies are in a panic over 'Sicko' and are trying to discredit Single-Payer. They're dumping millions into ads and campaign contributions to make sure that the media don't discuss Single-Payer and politicians don't support it. That's why nearly all Democratic and Republican candidates for President favor plans that leave corporate HMOs and insurance firms in charge of our health care! (Hillary Clinton is one of the top recipients of HMO-insurance lobby money.)
Real reform means eliminating the health insurance racket, not expanding it as the Democratic candidates propose. Beware of phony 'universal health care' plans! The US has some of the best health care technology... and some of the worst access to health care in the world. Every other western nation has a national health care system. Why can't the US?
MORE INFORMATION on Single-Payer (Medicare For All)
Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
The Green Party supports Single-Payer
http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/socjustice.html#1004214
Speak out for Single-Payer!
http://www.democracyinaction.com/dia/organizationsCOM/Greens/pickMedia.jsp?letter_KEY=359
Physicians for a National Health Program
http://www.pnhp.org
Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php
Center for Responsive Politics: information about insurance, HMO, and other corporate contributions to politicians
http://www.opensecrets.org
What would happen if our Fire Departments were privatized and run like our Health Care system?
- If your house catches fire, you wouldn't call 911 for the nearest neighborhood Fire Department. You'd call whatever Fire Department is in your insurance plan -- even if it's across town or miles away. You might have to call your 'Fire Insurance Company' or 'Fire Management Organization' for approval.
- Depending on your coverage, the Fire Department might tell you they can only fight the fire in your living room and bedroom, but not the kitchen or the garage... unless you pay an additional out-of-pocket fee.
- Your insurance company might tell you that, even though your house is on fire, they won't pay for the Fire Department to put it out, because your house had a 'prior condition.'
- If you don't have coverage, the Fire Department will only come if you pay an expensive fee. Many uninsured people would try to put out the fire themselves, or just let their house burn. Fires would then spread to other houses in the neighborhood.
- Democratic and Republican politicians would tell you that we can't have Fire Departments that are publicly owned and paid for with our tax dollars, even though it would be cheaper and would save lives and property... because that would be 'socialism'! Insurance companies would spend millions of dollars on ads and political contributions to make sure that Fire Departments remain under the control of insurance companies. Insurance company profits would be more important than the lives and property lost because of fires.
The Green Party supports
- Coverage for complementary and alternative therapies: herbal medicines, homeopathy, acupuncture, other healing approaches
- Reproductive rights for women: coverage for abortion on demand
- Comprehensive, humane, and competent care for all people with AIDS; expanded medical research on AIDS and cancer
- An end to the War on Drugs, and treatment of addiction as an illness instead of a crime
- Legalization of medical marijuana
- Elimination of work-related stress, through reduced work hours, more vacation time, therapies
- Improved diet for Americans: removal of caffeine & sugar snacks from schools; promotion of healthy organic foods
- Competent social and health services for people with special needs: the mentally ill, the handicapped, people with terminal illness
Labels: Green Party, Health Care, Single Payer
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