[GPCA Updates] GP RELEASE Greens: Dem health plans designed to benefit corporate sponsors]

[Green Party of California Updates]

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

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, May 29, 2008




Democrats' health care reform plans are designed
to satisfy corporate backers, not solve the
health care crisis, say Greens

• Green candidates call Single-Payer/Medicare For
All the only plan to help working Americans who
need care most

• Corporate campaign money and sponsorship of Dem
and GOP conventions will banish real health care
and campaign finance reform, say Greens


WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders and
candidates said today that the health care reform
plans offered by Democratic candidates Barack
Obama and Hillary Clinton are designed to benefit
insurance and pharmaceutical corporations --
including contributors to their own campaigns --
rather than American people who need coverage and
treatment.

The Green Party and its candidates strongly
support the Single-Payer national health care
plan, also called Medicare For All
(http://www.gp.org/organize/sicko.html).

"Anyone who believes that Hillary Clinton or
Barack Obama will offer real reform in the next
administration has been misled by the Democratic
Party leadership and their shills in the media.
Ms. Clinton and Mr. Obama are among the highest
recipients of money from insurance firms, HMOs,
and drug manufacturers [source: Center for
Responsive Politics,
http://www.opensecrets.org]," said Jody Grage,
treasurer of the Green Party of the United
States.

"Except for a handful who are marginalized by
their own party, most Democratic candidates are
running to prevent real health care reform.  They
intend to keep control over our health care in
the hands of corporate insurance firms and HMOs
who make their profits by denying treatment.
That's why over 45 million Americans don't have
health coverage and millions more can't get the
treatment they need even though they have
insurance," said Ms. Grage.

Ms. Clinton's $110-billion-per-year 'mandatory
coverage' plan would offer a gigantic subsidy for
the HMO-insurance industry, while shifting the
burden -- and the blame for lack of coverage --
onto people who desperately need health care.
Mr. Obama rejects the Single-Payer option and has
promised that his plan would sustain the HMO and
insurance industry.

Greens noted that the 2008 Democratic and
Republican national conventions will be funded by
numerous corporate sponsors seeking favors from
the next White House and Congress ("DNC
sponsorships raise questions on motivations,"
Rocky Mountain News, March 12, 2008,
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/may/12/dnc-sponsorships-raise-questions-on-motivations/).

The Green Party, which accepts no corporate
contributions, will hold its national convention
in Chicago, July 10-13
(http://www.greenparty2008.org).  The candidates
for the Green presidential nomination -- Jesse
Johnson, Cynthia McKinney, Kent Mesplay, and Kat
Swift -- all support Single-Payer.

"There's no incentive for either Democrats or
Republicans to pursue real campaign finance
reform and get corporate money out of politics
and public policy, because they both benefit from
the current system.  The only way to shock the
system and get real reform is by voting for
Greens, giving a noncorporate party seats in
Congress and state legislatures, and showing the
Democrats that they can't take their seats for
granted," said Bob Kinsey, Colorado Green
candidate for the US Senate
(http://www.kinseyforsenate.org).

"Greens are the only party with the solution for
the health care crisis.  Democrats and
Republicans have nothing to offer when it comes
to health care, except more denial of treatment,
more financial ruin for working Americans who
suffer a serious emergency, and big bucks for
corporate cronies," Mr. Kinsey added.

The Single-Payer/Medicare For All would guarantee
every American health care regardless of age,
income, employment, or prior medical condition;
allow choice of health care provider; provide
low-cost or no-cost treatment and prescriptions
(including complementary and alternative
medicine); and cost low- and middle-income
Americans far less than they now pay for private
or employer-based coverage by eliminating
insurance and HMO company overhead.  To contact
Green health care leaders in the Green Party
Speakers Bureau, visit
(http://gp.org/speakers/healthcare.shtml).


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
• 2008 Green National Convention: Live Green,
Vote Green http://www.greenparty2008.org
• Media credentialing
http://www.gp.org/forms/media
• Video of Green presidential candidates
http://www.gp.org/2008-elections/presidential-videos.php
• Links to Green Presidential Candidates' web
sites
http://www.gp.org/committees/pcsc/index.shtml
• 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 news releases:
• "Greens call Sen. Clinton's health care mandate
proposal a 'fraudulent, cynical, cruel' affront
to Americans who need coverage" ( September 24,
2007)
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2007_09_24.shtml
• "Clinton and Democrats are Obstacles to Real
Health Care Reform" (February 26, 2007)
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2007_02_26.shtml

"Seeking Coverage For All"
By John R. Battista and Justine McCabe (Green
Party members), The Hartford Courant, October 31,
2006
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2006/november/seeking_coverage_for.php

Physicians for a National Health Program
http://www.pnhp.org


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