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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 19th, 2006 CONTACTS: Colby E. Peterson Ron Francis Green-Rainbow Party Statement on the Promise of Universal Single-Payer HealthcareHundreds of thousands of people in Massachusetts are without healthcare coverage. We, the Green-Rainbow Party, find this unconscionable, considering that every other industrialized nation in the world is now providing publicly financed health coverage for all of its residents provided at a per-person cost that is about half as much as the price of care in Massachusetts. This deplorable situation has been created by a system driven by profit margins of insurance companies. The greed of corporate powers and their friends on Beacon Hill has inflated the cost of care due to excessive bureaucracy, paper work, advertising, CEO salaries, and other needless overhead. If redirected towards healthcare, these wasteful, bureaucratic expenses would be sufficient to fund healthcare coverage for everyone - without requiring an increase in total healthcare costs! The Green-Rainbow Party maintains that the ONLY just solution to the healthcare crisis is universal healthcare provided under a single-payer system of insurance - a publicly financed healthcare system that is comprehensive in both coverage and in care. The details of such a plan should be worked out in a democratic and open process including healthcare consumers, providers, and elected officials. The legislation signed by Gov. Romney on April 12th, 2006, which was hailed as the "great compromise," "revolutionary," and a "model" for the rest of the country, in contrast, was devised behind closed doors by politicians, health insurers, and large hospitals, which spent 7.5 million dollars on lobbying to influence the process and outcome in their own favor. It is no surprise this new law is a big win for these special interests, but a major setback for the people of Massachusetts. Before advancing any more so-called healthcare reform, out Commonwealth must adopt a fundamental concept: that access to healthcare is not a requirement- it is a human right. If this new law is implemented, health coverage in Massachusetts will become a requirement for every resident. The law will allow residents below the poverty line to receive subsidized stripped-down private insurance coverage, but for those who make too much money to qualify for free coverage, but make too little to buy coverage for themselves, tough times are ahead. Anyone who cannot or does not purchase health insurance will be issued a fine to be deducted from the resident's prospective state tax refund. Even if the low-to-moderate income or working class families and residents are able to purchase a plan, the plan is likely to be too stripped-down to offer adequate coverage, and will only reinforce disparities in healthcare between the haves and have-nots. The plan also provides a huge windfall for insurance companies by creating a new group of buyers that are legally required to purchase insurance. A universal healthcare plan must guarantee equal coverage to all, regardless of any status, economic or otherwise. This newly passed system of "play or pay" is extortion, and the only parties that are held unaccountable in the process are insurance companies- guaranteed to profit whatever happens. This law also disingenuously attempts to force businesses to provide health insurance for their employees. Any business that does not provide health insurance will be faced with a $295 fine per employee per year. This penalty is laughable, as it is a drop in the pond for big business when compared to the cost of providing the most basic health insurance plan to their workers. Big businesses will now have an incentive to drop health coverage in favor of paying a miniscule fine. We are now forced to ask, how many workers will lose quality health insurance benefits upon the implementation of this new law? While this law will provide free coverage to many among us who need it, it is grossly inadequate, unjust, limitlessly expensive, and a diversion from what will meet the needs of all of us, all the residents of Massachusetts. We call for an end to healthcare coverage based on profit margins, probabilities, and cynical formulae of insurance companies and the government decision-makers they fund, and instead favor the prompt implementation of a single-payer, universal system. As a first step, we therefore urge for the passage and ratification of the healthcare Amendment to our Constitution as it will ensure the right for every Massachusetts resident to have comprehensive, affordable, and equitably financed health insurance coverage. For when we achieve these ends, Massachusetts will be one step closer to living up to its namesake, a compassionate and healthy Commonwealth. (END) CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS STATEMENT:
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