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In Durham, North Carolina this July, delegates at the Annual National Meeting of the Green Party of the United States chose working for a Single Payer Health Care System as one of the top priorities for the coming year.
The Green Party has taken a strong stand, based in experience, to reform our nation’s health care system. All across the country, the health insurance debate rages. The debate is centered around reforming the health insurance companies.
The Green Party has a tradition of going to the root of the problem. The problem will not be addressed by making minor changes to require health insurance companies to provide a bit more health care to a few more people…. We exist not to dabble in small adjustments on the edges of corporate America, but instead to pressure for basic reforms. The Green Party honors health care as a basic right for all rather than as a rationed privilege only for those who have. We advocate for a Single Payer Health Care System. Our candidates stand firmly for Single Payer when they run for office, our elected officials stand for Single Payer when in office, and our members advocate for Single Payer in their daily lives.
The idea of health care as a right is not a radical position, but instead is part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the founding document of the United Nations, of which the United States was a signatory in 1948. It states: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services”
Our health care system in the United States is the most expensive in the world. A Single Payer system would cut the cost of health care delivery by as much as one third.
Our health care system was ranked 37th in 2000 by the World Health Organization. A Single Payer system would be able to deliver better health care to more people.
Advocating for Single Payer is a protection….
…for each of us as individuals. Our nation’s health care is only as strong as the weakest link. If some of us are vulnerable to diseases such as tuberculosis, which is among us now, or to any of the predcited pandemics that will come with our population, water, and environmental challenges, then all of us are vulnerable. The future of our nation’s health security lies in our willingness to address the health of the least of us .
…for our nation’s businesses, so that they might more fairly compete with other nations.
…for our workers, so that they might be as productive as possible
…for our cities, towns, villages, counties, schools, so that providing health care doesn’t bankrupt them.
…for our children, that they might realize a healthy future.
Filed under: Action Alert!, activism, grassroots democracy, Green Party, Healthcare, News
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