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HR 676
Hawkins, Green Senate Candidate, Joins National Week of Action for Single-Payer Health Care (HR 676) |
For More Information:
Howie Hawkins 315-425-1019, hhawkins@igc.org
Sally Kim, 518 364-2968, green_sallyk@yahoo.com
(Syracuse, NY) Howie Hawkins, the Green Party nominee for US Senate, pledged today to introduce in the US Senate a companion bill to the HR 676, which would establish a single-payer health care system in the US.
The week of June 7th day is a national week of action in support of HR 676 organized by the Healthcare-NOW! coalition. http://www.healthcare-now.org/
Hawkins’ opponent, Hillary Clinton, actively opposed a single payer program when she was in charge of crafting a national health care program in 1993. Clinton supported a compulsory private health insurance plan that mandated that consumers buy inadequate and expensive private health insurance.
"Clinton is beholden to special interests like insurance companies. It was Hillary Clinton's unwillingness to oppose the private health insurance industry that derailed the movement for national health insurance in 1993, when it had 100 congressional co-sponsors and more than two-thirds public support in the public opinion polls. Instead, she promoted so-called managed competition, which channeled even more money to the health insurance companies. Her legacy is the rise of Health Maintenance Organizations in our country, where insurance clerks, not doctors and patients, determine medical care," stated Hawkins.
“The legacy of Clinton’s mismanagement of health care policy in 1993 is a system where annual family premiums average $9,068 this year; 49 million Americans are uninsured at any given time, 75 million Americans are uninsured for some period during the year, and another 50 million are under insured,” said Hawkins.
The US spends more per capita (15.5% of GDP) on health care than any other country, almost double the next highest country. The World Health Organization rates the US health care system 37th in the world in overall performance.
HR 676, introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), would establish an American-styled national health insurance program. The bill would create a publicly financed, privately delivered health care program that uses the already existing Medicare program by expanding it to all U.S. residents and by improving its cost control and consumer choice features. The legislation would ensure that all Americans are guaranteed coverage by law. All Americans would have access to the highest quality health care services regardless of employment, income, or health care status.
Physicians For A National Health Program estimates that the US would save over $286 billion annually on overall health care expenditures under a Medicare For All plan while extending health care coverage to all. Under HR 676, the average costs to employers for an employee making $30,000 per year will be reduced to $1,155 per year; less than $100 per month.
HR 676 would cover all medically-necessary services, including primary care, inpatient care, outpatient care, emergency care, prescription drugs, durable medical equipment, long term care, mental health services, dentistry, eye care, chiropractic, and substance abuse treatment. Patients would have their choice of physicians, providers, hospitals, clinics, and practices. HR 676 would convert the health care financing system to a nonprofit system.
The Medicare for All program would annually set reimbursement rates for physicians, health care providers; and negotiate prescription drug prices. The national office would provide an annual lump sum allotment to each existing Medicare region, which would then administer the program in each region. Payment to health care providers would be on a fee for service basis. Hospitals and other health care institutions would receive funding for budgets administered at each site, rather than micromanaged from a central bureaucracy. Doctors will be paid based on their current reimbursement rates.
“The US has the most inefficient and irrational system of health care financing in the world and it bars tens of millions of Americans from access. A Medicare for All program would rationalize health care financing so that everyone would be covered and we would still cut our overall health care costs. The only thing standing in the way are the private health insurance companies and the politicians they buy with campaign contributions, like Hillary Clinton,” declared Hawkins.
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 *Website by David Doonan, Labor Donated to Hawkins for Senate Campaign* |
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