Casey: McCain health care plan is a Bush repeat

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, October 9, 2008

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org

Greens speak out on health care, comparing Obama & McCain's rejection of Single-Payer/Medicare For All with their endorsement of the $700 billion bailout for Wall Street

• Only votes for Cynthia McKinney and other Green candidates will bring real health care reform closer to reality; Greens blast Obama ad for misrepresenting Single-Payer

WASHINGTON, DC -- Green candidates and leaders, encouraged by an open letter from Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), called the Green Party the only hope for guaranteed health care for all Americans.

On October 6, PNHP (http://www.pnhp.org) published "Doctors to Candidates: Enact Single-Payer Health Reform," announcing that 5,000 physicians have signed an open letter challenging candidates to endorse the Single-Payer plan, also called Medicare For All (http://www.pnhp.org/letter).

• Joshua Drake, Arkansas Green candidate for Congress, 4th district (http://www.drake08.com): "The Green Party's presidential ticket and slate of candidates for Congress represent America's best and only hope for real universal health care. Green nominees Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente support the Single-Payer/Medicare For All health plan. Barack Obama and John McCain don't support it, because they're dedicated to the same Wall Street interests that led them to endorse the taxpayer-funded $700 billion bailout for financial corporations. We're telling voters, if you want real health care reform, the Green Party offers the only hope for guaranteed quality health care in America. Greens will fight for it long after the 2008 election ends, until we get Congress to enact a Single-Payer bill."

• Joyce Robinson Paul, DC Statehood Green Party candidate for US Statehood Representative (http://www.statehood4dc.com/jrpaul/home): "Barack Obama and John McCain would leave health care for most Americans under the control of corporate HMOs and insurance companies, which limit treatment in order to maximize their own profits. That's why so many Americans with private health coverage wind up paying out of pocket anyway. Whether or not you have private health insurance, you can still suffer financial ruin because of a health emergency. Under Single-Payer, no one will go bankrupt because of illness or injury."

• Nan Garrett, co-chair of the Green Party National Women's Caucus and a Georgia Green (http://greens.org/gp-uswomen): "Mr. Obama claims in a campaign ad that his health care plan avoids government-administered coverage, which would require higher taxes. This ad is misleading. It leaves out the fact that working people will pay far less for Single-Payer than for private coverage, because Single-Payer does away with profits for insurance and HMO middlemen, saving more than $300 billion every year. That's enough to cover the uninsured and eliminate co-payments and deductibles for all Americans. Even more important, no American would be denied treatment because of inability to pay, employment, age, or a prior medical condition."

• Bob Kinsey, Green candidate for the US Senate in Colorado (http://www.kinseyforsenate.org): "It's time to make health care a right for all Americans. Unfortunately, Obama and McCain insist on the right of the powerful insurance industry to make big money off our health. John McCain wants to end employer-based health coverage and replace it with private accounts, and his tax exemptions are in reality government subsidies for insurance firms and HMOs. Barack Obama wants heavy regulation of the insurance industry to expand coverage, but would compensate by establishing a health insurance 'marketplace' that would sustain the industry. Mandates, tax credits and incentives, and indirect subsidies are all based on appeasement of the private insurance lobbies, which contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to both Democrats and Republicans to make sure that corporate profits prevail over human needs. Neither Obama nor McCain will admit that private
insurance and HMO coverage is expensive, inefficient, inadequate, and unnecessary. No other country allows the profit-based insurance industry to control the health care system as the US does. Private health insurance is the core of the problem and must be eliminated, not subsidized, mandated, and protected as McCain and Obama propose.

• Rodger Jennings, Illinois Green candidate for Congress, 12th District (http://www.rodgerjennings.org): "Whenever people who favor Single-Payer throw their support to anti-Single-Payer Democrats like Barack Obama, they are selling themselves and the health of our nation short. America will get true universal health care when a political party dedicated to Single-Payer -- the Green Party -- achieves major-party status. If a few Greens were elected to Congress, it would change the whole political landscape and put Single-Payer on the table, because Democrats and Republicans would no longer only be competing with each other. The real problem facing America isn't the Republican Party, it's the bipartisan pursuit of campaign dollars without concern for the health of all Americans."

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
• Green candidate database for 2008 and other campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections

Green Party information page on health care and the Single-Payer plan http://www.gp.org/organize/sicko.html

Canadian study: ""Eroding Public Medicare: Lessons and Consequences of For-Profit Health Care Across Canada"
http://www.web.net/~ohc/Eroding%20Public%20Medicare.pdf
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/9008725.html
http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/story.html?id=8cd6ea8e-d...

Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente 'Power to the People' Campaign for the White House
http://votetruth08.com
http://www.runcynthiarun.org

Cynthia McKinney on video
http://www.youtube.com/user/RunCynthiaRun
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=RunCynthiaRun
• Music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx1NPlQjkqo

Rosa Clemente on video
• Interview: Current TV/Rock the Vote http://current.com/items/89335393_the_organizer_and_green_party_vp_candi...

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