{news} GPNews RELEASE Greens: Clinton & Dems are obstacles to real health care reform

Mon Feb 26 16:16:55 EST 2007

Scott McLarty <scottmclarty at yahoo.com> wrote:  From: Scott McLarty <scottmclarty at yahoo.com>
To: natlcomaffairs at green.gpus.org, media-states at lists.gp-us.org,
lavender-caucus at green.gpus.org
Subject: [media-states] GP RELEASE Greens: Clinton & Dems are obstacles to real health care reform
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 08:09:47 -0800 (PST)

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Monday, February 26, 2007

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624,
mclarty at greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805,
starlene at gp.org
John Battista, M.D., 860-354-1822

Sen. Hillary Clinton and other Democratic leaders
are obstacles to real health care reform, say
Greens

• Greens assert need for single-payer national
health insurance, which top Democrats and
Republicans reject because of corporate HMO,
insurance, and pharmaceutical contributors

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders called on
Congress to reject health care reform plans that
maintained corporate-based insurance and HMO
coverage, and urged passage of a single-player
national health insurance program.

"America is ready for single-payer," said Maria
Allwine, former Green candidate for Maryland
State Senate and U.S. Senate and member of the
Maryland Universal Health Care Action Network . 
"We're not ready for another Republican or
Democratic proposal that guarantees profits for
HMOs and insurance firms, while doing little for
America's 46 million uninsured and millions more
under-insured. We appeal to Congress, the
American people, unions, and health-care
providers to reject corporate-friendly
managed-care plans and demand national health
insurance."

Greens were especially critical of Sen. Hillary
Clinton's (D-N.Y.) continuing role in obstructing
needed health care reforms.

"Hillary Clinton should be banished from the room
when health coverage is discussed," said Rebecca
Rotzler, co-chair of the Green Party of the
United States and Deputy Mayor of New Paltz, New
York. "Ms. Clinton's favoritism towards major
insurance companies undermined real health care
reform when her husband's administration crafted
its managed-care monstrosity in 1993. She and
other Democrats remain at the top of the list of
recipients of contributions from insurance and
pharmaceutical lobbies
[http://www.opensecrets.org]."

In the 2006 race for the U.S. Senate, New York
Green candidate Howie Hawkins sharply criticized
Ms. Clinton for pandering to private health
insurance companies and endorsing a Massachusetts
bill mandating that consumers buy inadequate
private health insurance. Greens running for
office in New York, Massachusetts, and numerous
other states promoted state-based plans to
provide all residents with health care services
through publicly-funded coverage.

"Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, and
other prominent Democrats are the greatest
obstacle to universal health coverage. Except
for a few mavericks like Rep. John Conyers
[D-Mich.], who has regularly introduced
single-payer bills, Democrats have joined
Republicans in favoring HMO and insurance
corporations over guaranteed publicly-financed
quality health care for every American. It's a
safe bet that the 2008 Democratic nominee will --
like Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry before
them -- follow the same pattern," said Kat Swift,
spokesperson for the National Women's Caucus of
the Green Party.

Greens noted that Democrats and Republicans alike
were responding to the growing health care crisis
in recent years by siding with corporate insurers
and rejecting the principle that federal or state
governments should provide coverage, despite poll
numbers showing growing majority support for
single-payer. During the Clinton-Gore
Administration, the Democratic Party deleted
national health insurance from its national
platform; national health insurance had been a
Democratic promise since 1948.

In November, 2003, Republicans in Congress passed
a complex Prescription Drug bill that mostly
benefits drug firms and advances the long-time
Republican ambition to replace Medicare with
private coverage
. More
recently, President Bush has cut $28 million from
Medicaid to pay for the Iraq War.

Greens noted that profits for the private health
insurance industry now consume as much as 30¢ of
every health dollar, and that pay for insurance
and HMO executives is now in the
multimillion-dollar stratosphere, e.g.,
$29,061,599 for Stephen Wiggins, CEO of Oxford
Health Plans, Inc.; $11,568,410 for Wilson
Taylor, Chairman and CEO of CIGNA Corporation
.

According to a 2000 study by Harvard Medical
School and the Canadian Institute for Health
Information
,
U.S. pays 31 cents on every dollar for
administrative costs; Canada, under its
single-payer system, pays half this amount. 
Greens further noted that taxpayers and health
care providers are already paying health care
costs for the uninsured.

"We urge unions and other civil groups to demand
single-payer, instead of falling into lockstep
with Democrats, or we'll repeat the health care
reform debacle of 1993," said John Battista,
M.D., former Green candidate for state
representative in Connecticut and co-author of
his state's single-payer legislation in 1999 (the
Connecticut Health Care Security Act). "It's
time to reject vaguely defined corporate-friendly
'affordable' health care plans."

"Single-payer will provide quality health
coverage for every American regardless of income,
ability to pay, residence, age, or prior medical
condition at a cost that's far less than working
Americans currently pay for private coverage,
while providing full choice of physician and
hospital," added Dr. Battista. "That's why the
Green Party supports single-payer."

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
Green Party News Center
http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml

"Seeking Coverage For All"
By John R. Battista and Justine McCabe (Green
Party members), The Hartford Courant, October 31,
2006
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2006/november/seeking_coverage_for.php

"Why Obama, Edwards, Hillary, Romney,
Schwarzenegger Don’t Support Single Payer? It
Would Mean the Death of the Health Insurance
Industry, and Reduced Profits for Big Pharma"
Corporate Crime Reporter 9, February 21, 2007
http://www.healthcare-now.org/shownews.php?nid=394&sid=&subid
http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com

Physicians for a National Health Program
http://www.pnhp.org

~ END ~

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  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Tim McKee cell (860) 778-1304 or (860) 643-2282
   National Committee Member of the Green Party(Connecticut)

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