{news} Green Party response to Obama's speech tonight on health care reform

Tim McKee timmckee at mail.com
Thu Sep 10 08:51:18 EDT 2009 

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

From: "Scott McLarty"
To: natlcomaffairs at green.gpus.org
Subject: [usgp-dx] Green response to Obama's speech tonight on health
care reform
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2009 19:14:36 +0000



Hey Greens & friends

President Obama is addressing the nation this evening and will talk
about health care reform.

This is our chance to provide a loud Green response & a demand for
single-payer, with letters to the editor, op-ed submissions,
articles, blog contributions, video clips, live webstreaming, calls
to radio talk shows, etc.

Below are lists of talking points I've compiled over the past
couple of months, with a sample letter to the editor at the bottom.
Some of the ones at the top are the best & most immediately
relevant. They're a little redundant, because I didn't spend time
editing them. You can use them however you want. I recommend
picking out just a few of them -- keep your message simple,
focused, and hard-hitting.

If you add a personal story about problems you, a family member, or
a friend have had with health care, it'll make your message even
more powerful. See Cynthia McKinney's remembrance of her Aunt
Hazel (http://www.gp.org/cynthia/display.php?ID=17).

Please take some time and write a letter or op-ed column for
publication. If you have the equipment, make a video of yourself
arguing how important it is to enact single-payer. The Media
Committee can help you submit your letter or column and help post
your video online -- contact us (scottmclarty at yahoo.com). Also,
let us know if you've sent a letter or submission or placed your
video online.

Don't let the Glen Beck/Rush Limbaugh/Tea Party gang become the
only opposition to Obamacare! The Green Party has an opportunity
right now to show national political leadership on health care.
But we need everyone's help. If only a few Greens act, we will
have no effect on the public debate on health care.

Write now! Right now!

(Please forward this message widely)

Scott
Media Committee


* * * * *


SOME BASIC TALKING POINTS

• The Green Party (http://www.gp.org) joins millions of other
Americans in our demand to make health care a right for every
American, through single-payer national health care, also called
Medicare For All (676)

• 50 million Americans have no health coverage, millions more are
denied medical treatment by their insurance providers, and hundreds
of thousands of Americans face financial ruin every year because of
an illness or injury. The only solution to America's health crisis
is single-payer national health care, also called Medicare For All
(676): Everybody in, nobody out!

• What do the Democrats holding town hall meetings and the mobs
trying to disrupt the meetings have in common? No matter which
side gets its way, the insurance companies win and Americans lose!

• Private for-profit health insurance is denying people needed
medical care. 7 out of 10 people bankrupted by medical costs have
health insurance. It's time to pull the plug on the for-profit
health insurance industry.

• We demand that single-payer be placed on the table in the health
care reform debate. (Senator Max Baucus, chair of the Senate
Finance Committee, says single-payer is "off the table.")

• We demand a televised national debate between advocates and
opponents of single-payer, so Americans can hear the truth about
universal health care.

• We demand new studies by the GAO and Congressional Budget Office
on the cost of single-payer. In the 1990s, analyses by these
offices showed that single-payer would save billions of dollars in
health care expenses.

• Obamacare is not single-payer. It is not universal health care.
It's a capitulation to the health insurance and other corporate
lobbies that place profits ahead of human lives. It's expensive,
with handouts to insurance companies. It's designed to please the
corporate lobbies that contribute millions of dollars to Democratic
and Republican candidates.

• Many Democrats support mandates, which will impose fines for not
purchasing health insurance, are nothing less than a giant
taxpayer-funded subsidy for the for-profit health insurance
industry. That's why Obamacare should be defeated and we should
demand single-payer national health care, which will drastically
cut health care costs by removing for-proft insurance overhead and
CEO salaries.

• African Americans and other people of color (with or without
coverage) and poor people have suffered the worst treatment by the
health care status quo. See Cynthia McKinney's article "How Did We
Get From There to Here? (100,000 Unnecessary Black Deaths Per
Year)." http://www.gp.org/cynthia/display.php?ID=17

• Promote the Single-Payer Voter's Pledge: "I will vote for no
candidate who does not support single-payer. I will vote for no
candidate who takes contributions from health insurance companies,
pharmaceutical manufacturers, and other powerful corporations that
put profit before people. I will only vote for candidates who will
work to make health care a human right for everyone!"

• CALL YOUR US SENATORS & US REPRESENTATIVE and demand that they
support and vote for single-payer legislation (HR 676 in the
House). Call the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask
for your Senator or Representative. Be firm but nice!

(More information: Single-Payer FAQ at the Physicians for a
National Health Program web site
http://www.pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php)


DON'T BE A SUCKER

• The Democratic Party's plan for health care reform will not
provide universal health care! Obamacare does not make health care
a right for every American. It would leave for-profit insurance
industry power & inefficiency (huge CEO salaries, high overhead and
administrative costs) in place and send millions in taxpayer-funded
subsidies to for-profit insurance companies. 60% of insurance
industry contributions went to Democrats in the 2008 election.

• The Republicans (and rightwing ranters like Glenn Beck, Rush
Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity) are telling lies and repeating
dishonest talking points from the insurance industry lobby about
"creeping socialism," "rationing," and the "failure" of the British
and Canadian health care programs. In fact, health care in the UK
and Canada is better than in the US, with longer life expectancies,
lower infant mortality rates, and guaranteed treatment for all
citizens (according to the World Health Organization).

• The mainstream media is misreporting the news on health care
reform. They ignore the movement for single-payer, even though a
majority of Americans support guaranteed national health care.
Some stations won't run ads for single-payer, because they're
afraid such ads will offend insurance companies advertisers.


* * *


MORE DETAILED TALKING POINTS


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. Under single-payer, everyone is guaranteed
quality health care, including prescriptions. Currently, 50
million Americans have no health coverage and millions more have
inadequate coverage. Single-payer makes health care a human right.

• With single-payer, no American will face financial ruin because
of illness or injury. Private HMOs and health insurance companies
make their profits by denying treatment to those who are
'high-risk' because of existing health problems, age, income, and
other reasons. They often refuse to pay claims or cancel insurance
for those who need treatment. Private health insurance is designed
to fail people who need health care the most.

• Single-payer is less bureaucratic than private insurance. Health
care decisions will be made solely by patient and physician.
Single-payer will allow us to choose our physician, health care
provider, and health care facility -- without needing an approval
from government or from a health insurance company.

• Single-payer will cut national health care costs by as much as a
third and reduce what we pay for 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 profit-making insurance and HMO 'middle-men.'

• Single-payer reduces paperwork for physicians and hospitals, one
reason why thousands of MDs, other health care professionals, and
medical students have endorsed single-payer.

• Physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers will
compete to serve the public in a single-payer system, raising the
quality of health care.

• Health care rationing? 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 & the Economy:

• Single-payer makes economic sense. At 3% administrative cost,
Medicare (which would become universal under single-payer) is very
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, because it will cancel the high
expense and administrative burden of employer-based health care
benefits.

• Single-payer will relieve cities, towns, 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 citizens 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 outrage. (In 2004, Canadians voted
Tommy Douglas, the Baptist minister who led the movement for their
country's single-payer system, as the 'Greatest Canadian' of all
time in a CBC poll.)

• The insurance/HMO industry has given millions of dollars 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
and all Green candidates support it. The Democratic Party endorsed
national health insurance in 1948, but removed it from the
Democratic platform during the Clinton Administration. Democrats
and Republicans 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).
President Obama admitted in July 2009, said "Now, the truth is that
unless you have a what's called a single-payer system, in which
everybody's automatically covered, then you're probably not going
to reach every single individual."
(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/us/politics/22obama.transcript.html)
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.

• What's wrong with the health care reform plans supported by
President Obama and Democratic leaders? The only winners under
these plans are the insurance companies, HMOs, and drug
manufacturers. Democrats want Americans to spend billions of
dollars extra every year for health care, rather than just
eliminate the bureaucracy, paperwork, waste, and high CEO salaries
of for-profit insurance. The Democrats' proposed 'mandate' would
mean massive taxpayer subsidies for the insurance industry. The
'public option' won't reduce health care costs, and would only
cover 10 million people out of the 50 million without insurance.
President Obama and the Democrats have already caved in to drug
industry pressure on reimporting Canadian drugs, on negotiating for
lower drug prices, and on generics.

• (Published in The Progressive Review, August 13,
http://prorev.com) Why is it that these town hall loons are being
considered representative of the voice of the people, yet when ten
times the amount of people protest against the Iraq War, the news
barely reported on it, and acted as if their opinions were "fringe"
opinions not worthy of consideration? - A Reddit reader


* * *


SEND A LETTER!

Send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Below is a
sample letter -- but you should use your own words. If you have a
personal story (involving yourself or family member or friend or
co-worker) about health care, it'll make your letter even better.
Visit the Letters page of your newspaper's web site for information
on submitting the letter for publication.


To the Editor,

What do the Democrats holding town hall meetings and the mobs
trying to disrupt the meetings have in common? No matter which
side wins, millions of Americans will still go without coverage,
hundreds of thousands will go into financial ruin over health care
costs, and insurance CEOs will laugh their way to the bank. Don't
be fooled by the Obamacare plan for 'mandates' and promises of a
'public option', which mean continued skyrocketing health care
costs and huge taxpayer-funded subsidies to insurance companies.

The only real solution to the health care crisis is the
single-payer plan, which covers every American regardless of
income, age, or prior medical condition. Under single-payer,
physicians and patients make decisions about medical care, not
government or corporate bureaucracies, and everyone can choose his
or her own health care provider. As GAO and Congressional Budget
Office studies have shown in the past, single-payer will save
billions in health care spending, because it eliminates the
administrative costs, waste, and high CEO salaries of for-profit
health insurance.

Single-payer could be Congress's gift to working people and
businesses alike. Single-payer will boost the economy by relieving
businesses large and small of the costly burden of providing health
benefits.

Whether the Obama/Dem plan passes or Republicans get their way and
no health care reform is passed, health insurance companies will
win and the American people will lose. The health of the American
people is more important than corporate profits. Let's make health
care a right for everyone and pass HR 676, the single-payer bill.

Sincerely,
YOUR NAME





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******************************************
Tim McKee, New Britian, CT, main number cell-860-778-1304
National Committee member of the Green Party of the United States and is a spokesperson for the Green Party of CT.
CT GREEN TIMES
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