Green Party of the United States
WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party candidates and leaders said today that the Supreme Court's ruling upholding the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) should not distract Americans from the demand for real health care reform -- Medicare For All.
Greens said that Medicare For All (single-payer national health care) will expand on the beneficial parts of the ACA and extend the guarantee of quality health care to every American, while solving its deficiencies, especially the unpopular individual mandate. Greens support expanded and improved Medicare For All, to include dental, vision, hearing, nutritional counseling, and proactive medicine, without co-pays, deductibles, and "doughnut holes."
Medicare For All would cover all Americans, provide full choice of physician and hospital, and cut costs dramatically: current Medicare administrative overhead is only 3%, while for-profit health insurance administrative overhead is as high as 30%. The Green Party also supports efforts to enact statewide single-payer legislation in many states.
The Green Party is preparing for its 2012 National Convention in Baltimore, Md., July 12-15. Baltimore has one of the premier hospitals in the country, Johns Hopkins, but too many Baltimore residents remain without access to health care.
– Andrew Straw, Green candidate for the US House of Representatives in Indiana, 2nd District (http://www.strawforcongress.com/) "While many people are celebrating the court's decision upholding the insurance mandate, we should remember that the mandate is a direct public subsidy to sustain and enrich the health insurance industry and maintain its bureaucratic control over our medical system. We urge Americans to support Medicare For All, which will remove for-profit insurance companies from the system, along with the excessive profits and CEO salaries that keep driving up medical costs. The ACA doesn't give us universal coverage -- at least 26 million people will remain uninsured. It doesn't control skyrocketing costs and won't stop people from going into financial ruin because of a medical emergency. The Court's decision furthermore overruled expansion of Medicaid coverage, which could push millions more Americans out of coverage. That's why we need Medicare For All."
– Audrey Clement, Green candidate for Arlington County Board in Virginia (http://www.audreyclement.org/) and co-chair of the Green Party of the United States: "We shouldn't forget that the individual mandate is a Republican idea that the Obama Administration coopted -- along with many other Republican ideas and goals since his election. The mandate was introduced by the rightwing Heritage Foundation and promoted nationally by Republicans during the 1990s. It was the basis of Gov. Romney's statewide health care reform plan in Massachusetts. President Obama embraced the mandate idea to win the support of the powerful insurance lobbies for the ACA and pay them back for contributing record-high contributions to his campaign. The health care debate has been rigged all along so that, whether the ACA passed and survived a court challenge or the GOP succeeded in blocking it, the biggest winners would be the health insurance bureaucracy and other corporate health care lobbies."
– Darryl! Moch, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States: "What we need is a health care system that promotes healthy living from a holistic approach that includes prevention. The best way to save money and health care costs is to prevent illnesses in the first place or at least with proper prevention methods to lessen the severity should an illness occur. Medicare For All gives government a stake in promoting prevention and healthy living for all Americans. The Green Party offers the kind of medicine that we need -- a system that does not depend on wealthy corporations to provide insurance. It's a system that guarantees that everyone in the US has the same quality care currently enjoyed by the President, Congress, and the Supreme Court justices (and their families) and funded by taxpayers and hardworking people in this country."
– Ursula Rozum, Green candidate for the US House in Syracuse, in New York's 24th District (http://www.ursulaforcongress.com/) "We must make health care a right for all Americans. Instead of making health care a right, President Obama and Congress confirmed the notion that expanded coverage is only worth pursuing if the profits of insurance companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and other health care corporations can be guaranteed. That's why health insurance industry representatives were invited to help write the legislation. The Affordable Care Act will help many Americans -- but millions will be left out in the cold. It is ultimately a victory for the idea that no reform is desirable without an assurance that corporate profits will be maintained or increased. The Green Party says that human needs must overrule corporate profits and that for-profit insurance companies must be removed from our health care system."
See also:
"˜Health law upheld, but health needs still unmet’: national doctors group; Although the Supreme Court has upheld the Affordable Care Act, the law will not remedy the U.S. health crisis, physicians group says" Physicians for a National Health Program, press release, June 28, 2012 http://www.pnhp.org/news/2012/june/%E2%80%98health-law-upheld-but-health-needs-s/till-unmet%E2%80%99-national-doctors-group
"Single Payer Advocates Says Medicare for All Remains the Solution in Light of US Supreme Court Ruling" Single Payer New York, press release, June 28, 2012 http://singlepayernewyork.org/?p=1167
"Two-thirds of Americans support Medicare for all"
By Kip Sullivan, J.D., PNHP.org
"The Green Party urges the Supreme Court to strike down the Affordable Care Act's health insurance mandates, sees a chance for Medicare For All"
Green Party press release, March 5, 2012
"Should Obama’s Health Care Be Opposed?: An Exchange"
Letter from Marcia Angell, The New York Review of Books, June 7, 2012
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jun/07/should-obamas-health-care-b/e-opposed-exchange/
Healthcare-NOW!
Single Payer Now (California)
Single-Payer Frequently Asked Questions
Physicians for a National Health Program
