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Health Care Op-Ed
Medicare for All |
As the United States Senator from New York, I will propose a national health insurance plan for all Americans that will lower costs while putting control over our care back in the hands of doctors and patients. I will introduce companion legislation in the Senate to House Resolution 676, the Medicare for All bill.
We don’t need more money for health care. We need more health care for the enormous amount of money we are already paying to the grossly wasteful and inefficient private health insurance system. Health care expenditures already eat up one out of six dollars in the American economy – soon to be one out of five. Such enormous expenditures make it very difficult for American companies to compete with other industrial countries that spend less than of what we do per person and yet manage to cover everyone with far better health care services.
In 1993, Senator Hillary Clinton derailed a decades-long citizens movement for national health insurance when she refused support it as head of the White House Health Care Task Force. Instead, she pushed so-called “managed care” by private insurance companies, which has only increased the profits and bureaucracy of this special interest. Today, she opposes a Medicare for All system, instead supporting government mandates and subsidies to compel employers and self-employed individuals to buy private health insurance.
The health insurance industry has rewarded Senator Clinton by making her the second largest recipient in the country of their campaign contributions.
A recent poll by Zogby in New York showed that by 3 to 1 New Yorkers agree with my vision of health care reform rather than Clinton’s. As one newspaper editorial recently stated, “America’s trillion-dollar health care system would be far more efficient if all the money spent on administrative costs and insurance profit went directly to health care. There’s only one way to do that effectively: single-payer coverage administered by the federal government.”
The Medicare for All legislation I support would extend comprehensive coverage to everyone in the country, including prescriptions, mental health, vision, dental, nursing home, rehab, home health, and preventive care. It would save $300 billion per year in unnecessary administrative costs — more than enough to extend coverage to the 47 million currently uninsured. It would end co-pays and deductibles, thereby removing financial barriers to preventive care.
The only thing standing in the way of saving money and improving health care through Medicare for All are the private health insurance companies and the politicians they buy with campaign contributions, like Hillary Clinton.
Please vote for candidates who Medicare for All on November 7.
Sincerely,
Howie Hawkins
Green Party Candidate for US Senate
PO Box 562, Syracuse NY 13205
315 425-1019 or 481-7710
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 *Website by David Doonan, Labor Donated to Hawkins for Senate Campaign* |
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