SICKO: Green Party speakers release positions on single payer health careDesert Greens/Green Party of Utah June 29, 2007 Contact information: Eileen McCabe, 801-201-0219, gpu@gput.org Salt Lake City -- Green Party of Utah member joins in national statement on health care issues Michael Moore's new documentary, SICKO, is releasing nationwide today. The Green Party is the only political party with candidates that support universal single payer health care. The Green Party of the United States Speakers Bureau on Health Care has provided quotes from speakers on what looks to be one of the hottest issues of the 2008 campaign season: "It is a crime that the U.S. is the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee access to health care as a right of citizenship. The U.S. must implement a universal single payer health care system which will provide this basic right to our citizens and take the control of Americans' health out of the hands of the corporations." "The recently published statistics about the rising rate of poverty in
Utah exposes the proof of a dire need for universal single payer health care in Utah and in the
U.S." "We now have at least four tiers of health care in our multi-payer,
micro-managed health insurance system. These tiers not only wastefully
duplicate administrative costs that could be spent on care. They are really health care "castes," which
cruelly define the relative worth of Americans among their fellows. That's most un-American." "We've long been in a state of health care crisis and the individual
states need to lead the way because the federal government has not provided the leadership. In Portland, Maine the insurance companies
outspent citizens' groups a hundred to one to try and stop a citizens'
straw poll referendum supporting a single payer system -- We citizens still won." "In the global economy it's becoming increasingly harder for
businesses to compete when every other industrialized nation in the world has universal health care. Universal single payer health care
will provide health care more effectively, more efficiently and for less money." "As a result of inefficiencies and greed of the health insurance
industry, roughly 30 cents out of every health care dollar goes for things other than health care. The cost of this flawed approach
continues to soar higher and higher and cannot be maintained. To meet the health care needs of its population in a cost-effective and
sustainable manner, the U.S. must adopt the single-payer approach - private health care with public financing." "The present system of employer-based, private insurance driven health
care is keeping Americans from reaching many of their personal and economic potentials. Children are starting public school having never
seen a dentist or a personal health care provider. An unhealthy person
cannot pursue happiness, cannot enjoy liberty, and may not live a quality of life that
reflects a great nation that means to model for all people what a free society achieves. Let us be fair and share
our tremendous wealth at least to the extent that everyone has access to good health, nutrition education and opportunity." To book a speaker contact: Green Party Speakers Bureau More information: Eileen McCabe, 801-201-0219, gpu@gput.org, www.desertgreens.org
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