|
Greens Call for New Direction in National Health Policy: Single-Payer Coverage; Repeal of Abstinence-Based HIV and HPV Prevention GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES Thursday, December 8, 2005 Contacts: Greens identify the enemies of sound health policy: profit-based HMO, insurance, and drug firms, and right-wing religious lobbies. WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders called for a revival of the movement to enact single-payer national health insurance, and for the repeal of 'morality'-based obstructions to AIDS prevention and to a new cervical cancer vaccine. "The Medicare reform bill passed in November, 2003, benefited pharmaceutical companies while gutting coverage for millions of working people and making coverage difficult and confusing for many older Americans," said Jody Grage Haug, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. Ms. Haug turns 70 in January. "With the growing public realization that we've been conned out of health care, now is the time for a popular demand and legislative action to introduce single payer." Under single-payer national health insurance, all Americans, regardless of income, ability to pay, or prior medical condition, would receive quality health care, including choice of provider, under a tax plan that would be far less expensive that what most working people pay for private insurance or HMO plans. Single-payer national health insurance is a major goal of the Green Party of the United States. It was dropped from the Democratic Party platform under the Clinton Administration; Al Gore and John Kerry opposed it in their 2000 and 2004 White House bids. (Mr. Gore later endorsed it.) Insurance for a family of four is now over $10,000 a year, higher than the yearly income of a minimum-wage worker, and 9% higher than 2004. Only three out of five businesses now offer health insurance to their employees. "Employer-based private insurance has failed, as employers continue to reduce and eliminate benefits," said Mike Cavlan, Minnesota Green candidate for the U.S. Senate <http://www.cavlan.org>. Mr. Cavlan is slated to address hospital professionals in St. Paul on Thursday evening. "Market-based coverage has proven a disaster, with 45 million lacking coverage, especially those who need it most -- older Americans, those with or at risk of diseases, poor people, and others considered uninsurable by market standards. Whether it happens state-by-state or through national implementation, conversion to single-payer must begin immediately." Health coverage in general, and AIDS/HIV treatment in particular, have suffered because of cuts in services under the Bush Administration, said Greens. Party leaders also stressed that abstinence-only education, in the U.S. and abroad (i.e., in nations receiving U.S. aid) under pressure from the Bush White House, has placed even more lives at risk. Many women have no control over the conditions in which they have sex; these policies leave them especially vulnerable to infection. Greens noted recent attempts by Republicans to block a new vaccine against cervical cancers caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), and compared it to the prolonged Republican assault on condoms, including measures to to obstruct availability and an FDA requirement to place 'warning' labels on condom packages. "The justification is that making the cervical cancer vaccine and condoms widely available 'sends the wrong message' that sex outside of a monogamous marriage is permissible," said Rebecca Rotzler, national co-chair of the Green Party and Deputy Mayor of New Paltz, New York. "The message behind Bush policies that deny information and prevention is that those who don't conform to certain faith-based standards deserve illness and death." "The American people face two enemies in their need for guaranteed, quality health care -- corporations that place profit before human life and health, and religious extremists trying to impose false and reckless ideas about morality," Ms. Rotzler added. "Both Democrats and Republicans are addicted to money from insurance firms, HMOs, and pharmaceutical manufacturers. Republicans and some Democrats have fallen under the spell of religious extremists who hold little regard for the lives of women and gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender Americans. Greens call for public health policy based on human needs." MORE INFORMATION Green Party of the United States
|