{news} Fw: [usgp-dx] 'Burn Your Health Insurance Bill Day' demo for Single-Payer health care: Wed., March 11 in DC

Tue Mar 10 19:54:49 EDT 2009

----- Original Message -----

From: "Scott McLarty"
To: natlcomaffairs at green.gpus.org
Subject: [usgp-dx] 'Burn Your Health Insurance Bill Day' demo for
Single-Payer health care: Wed., March 11 in DC
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:55:47 +0000

(Please forward this announcement widely)

Burn Your Health Insurance Bill Day

Demonstration in support of Single-Payer national health care
(called Medicare For All) and against the power of private health
insurance corporations

WHEN: Wednesday, March 11, 10 am

WHERE: In front of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, 1150 22nd Street, NW, in
downtown Washington, DC near the Dupont Circle and GWU/Foggy Bottom
Metro stations

Inside the Ritz-Carlton, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP),
the main Washington lobbying group for health insurance
corporations, will meet to discuss plans to derail Single-Payer
(http://www.ahip.org/links/policy2009/).

Make health care a human right, not a cash cow for the for-profit
insurance industry! Read "March 11: Burn Your Health Insurance
Bill Day" by Russell Mokhiber (editor of Corporate Crime Reporter,
http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com) on the Common Dreams web
site (http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/03). The Obama
Administration, following the lead of mainstream Democrats &
Republicans (who take millions in private insurance industry
contributions), is trying to brush aside the demand for
Single-Payer. Let's send President Obama and Congress a message:
Single-Payer is the only solution to America's health care crisis!

If you can, bring a recent health insurance bill to the
demonstration and burn it!

WHAT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW about Single-Payer/Medicare For All....

See also the Green Party's information page on Single-Payer
(http://www.gp.org/organize/sicko.html) and "Single-Payer FAQ" at
the Physicians for a National Health Program web site
(http://www.pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php).

How Single-payer works:

• Everybody in, nobody out: Single-payer covers every American
regardless of employment, income, ability to pay, age, and prior
medical condition. Right now, about 48 million Americans have no
health coverage at all and millions more have inadequate coverage.
Under Single-payer, they will all enjoy guaranteed quality health
care, including prescriptions.

• In a Single-payer system, no American will face financial ruin
because of illness or injury. Private HMOs and health insurance
companies raise their profit margin by denying treatment to people
with medical emergencies and by denying coverage to those they
consider 'high-risk' because of existing health problems, age, low
income, etc. In other words, private health insurance is designed
to fail people who need health care the most.

• Single-payer will allow Americans to choose which physician,
health care provider, and health care facility will treat them.

• Single-payer will cut national health care costs by as much as a
third and reduce what working Americans pay for health coverage.
Single-payer will be funded at the federal level and administered
at the state level. Americans will pay for Single-payer the way we
now pay for Social Security, but the amount working Americans will
pay will be far less than for private health coverage, because
Single-payer eliminates the profit-making insurance and HMO
'middle-men.'

• Single-payer reduces paperwork for physicians and other health
professionals, one reason why thousands of MDs, other people
working in the health care industry, and medical students have
endorsed Single-payer.

• Under Single-payer, physicians, hospitals, and other health care
providers would compete to serve the public, raising the quality of
health care. Single-payer is a health insurance payment mechanism,
not a health care delivery system.

• Health care rationing? All health care plans ration care to some
extent. Under private insurance programs, treatment is rationed
according to ability to pay for coverage. Under Single-payer, the
insurance company profit motive is removed and health care is
rationed according to need, with medical emergencies and serious
illnesses receiving top priority.

Single-payer and the economy:

• Single-payer makes economic sense. At 3% administrative cost,
Medicare (which would be made universal under Single-payer) is
highly efficient compared to the 15-30% administrative costs of
for-profit insurance.

• Single-payer will boost the ailing US economy and provide relief
for businesses large and small, since it will cancel the high
expense and administrative burden of employer-based health care
benefits (http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=158).

• Single-payer will relieve municipalities and school boards from
having to bear the cost of providing health insurance to employees,
allowing responsible officials to reduce their budgets and lower
local property taxes.

• Single-payer gives government (and therefore taxpayers) a stake
in preventive medicine and promotion of good health habits to keep
costs down.

The politics of Single-payer:

• Polls have demonstrated popular support for a national health
care program that guarantees universal coverage
(http://www.wpasinglepayer.org/PollResults.html). In 2008, the US
Conference of Mayors endorsed Single-payer
(http://www.usmayors.org/resolutions/76th_conference/chhs_03.asp).

• The US is the only industrial democracy that does not guarantee
every citizen health care. Compared to other nations, America has
the best medical technology but poor access to medical treatment.
Single-payer will correct this scandal.

• The Center for Responsive Politics has documented the millions in
campaign money that the insurance industry has given to Democrats
and Republicans to maintain their control over health care
(http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=F09), with a
total of $46,002,881 in insurance lobby contributions in 2008.

• The Green Party endorses Single-payer in its national platform.
The Democratic Party endorsed national health insurance in 1948,
but removed it from the Democratic platform during the Clinton
Administration. The Democratic and Republican parties continue to
embrace failed 'market solutions.'

• Barack Obama, before he launched his bid for president, supported
Single-payer
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAyan1fXCE&feature=player_embedded). Al
Gore
opposed Single-payer when he ran for president in 2000, but
admitted two years later that Single-payer is the best plan
(http://www.pnhp.org/news/2002/november/gore_favors_single.php).
Dennis Kucinich was the only Democratic presidential candidate in
2008 to support Single-payer.

• "Single-payer health care is socialism!" By the same standard,
so are public streets, sidewalks, parks, schools, libraries, fire
departments, police forces, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security,
and bailouts for ailing Wall Street firms. The principle behind
Single-payer is that health care should be a human right, not a
commodity that allows powerful corporations that don't actually
provide health care (HMOs and insurance companies) to make money.

MORE INFORMATION on Single-Payer:

Green Party press releases on Single-Payer health care and the
Green challenge to the insurance industry's control over US health
care policy:
http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=189
http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=188
http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=174

Video clips:
2008 Green presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney speaks on
Single-Player health care and racial health care disparities
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEHd4lRVUuU
More on health care: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEHd4lRVUuU
Health, the environment, and the economy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVNTOa8owQQ

Rep. John Conyers' bill for Single-Payer (HR 676)
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc110/h676_ih.xml

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

* * *

The DC Statehood Green Party http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org
Join the DC Statehood Green discussion & news list:
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Join the list to receive press releases and important party
announcements: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dcstatehoodgreennews
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******************************************
Tim McKee, Manchester CT, main number cell-860-778-1304, 860-643-2282
 National Committee member of the Green Party of the United States and is a spokesperson for the Green Party of CT.
BLOG-http://thebiggreenpicture.blogspot.com

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