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Statement by Charlie Pillsbury from a press
conference on September 25th, 2002.
09.25.02 -- We have a health care emergency in this state and in this nation. Nationally, 40 million Americans have no health insurance, and many millions more have inadequate coverage. In Connecticut, 12% of our state population is without health insurance. This group of predominantly working individuals and their families has increased by 74% since 1990, and is associated with both poorer health care and higher health costs than the insured segment of our population.
Finally, there is the problem of financially struggling hospitals, like the Hospital of Saint Raphael (HSR). Over the past three years, HSR has lost $17.6 million. We are standing in front of the HSR Emergency Room (HR), the management of which is being transferred to a private company on October 1. According to hospital officials, last year alone HSR provided $16 million of unreimbursed medical care to uninsured or underinsured patients. We can no longer ask either our uninsured families or our struggling hospitals to shoulder the burden of health care in America. The expanding ER franchise business, which is coming to HSR next Tuesday, is just one more sign of a national health care system in crisis.
To address these health insurance problems affecting so many Americans, I am here today with other Green Party candidates for public office to advocate for a single payer Universal Health Care system in the United States. Such a system would lower health costs by (1) decreasing administrative expenses (30% of all US health care dollars are spent on administration), (2) purchasing medications in bulk, and (3) coordinating health care services. Despite spending more per capita on health care than any other nation, the US ranks 17th in the world in the quality of health care. This is both a national disgrace and a national tragedy.
A key feature of my Universal Health Care proposal is that the federal government should set guidelines for universal health care and provide funding for start up costs, while the states--which are in a better position to do so--should determine the means. This is the basic approach of House Concurrent Resolution 99 (CR 99), which I endorsed last March. CR 99 directs "Congress to enact legislation by October 2004 that provides access to comprehensive health care for all Americans."
In conclusion, health care reform cannot be postponed any longer. How can the richest nation on earth, which sets the standards for medical science and health care, fail to look after the basic health needs of so many of its citizens? This all-important national priority must not expire in the Emergency Room or in the halls of Congress. Health care for all Americans is a right, not a privilege.
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