More Reactions to Supreme Court Ruling on the Affordable Care Act, June 28, 2012

Jill Stein for President
Romneycare and Obamacare are class warfare and failures, says Stein; calls for "real solution" of Medicare for All

In the wake of this morning’s Supreme Court ruling maintaining the health insurance mandate, Dr. Jill Stein declared it, “time for all Americans to reject the failed Obama and Romney approach to the health crisis, and demand an improved Medicare for All system that provides health care to all at an affordable price.” Stein noted that "Obamacare is based on Romneycare, and as with so much else, Obama implemented a Republican scheme to impose mandates that are a regressive tax on working people. The Roberts Court may call it constitutional, but the mandate is still bad news for our suffering millions. Romneycare has meant that the working poor have seen a health cost increase ten times that of the wealthy.”

Dr. Stein is not only the presumptive Green Party presidential nominee, she is a Harvard-trained physician and a leading advocate for single-payer Medicare for All who twice ran against Romney in Massachusetts. "As a physician, I've seen Romneycare in action in my home state of Massachusetts. Forty percent of the people who need health coverage find that it's still too expensive for them. And a quarter of the people who seek payments get denied by their private insurers.  It has failed to control costs, and as a result they are raising co-pays and attacking public employee health plans. It's a fiscal and administrative nightmare which has gutted public services in Massachusetts. Schemes developed by health industry lobbyists to enrich themselves will never take care of our real needs.”

Dr. Stein made her position crystal clear, saying that, “We must implement a publicly administered non-profit system with no premiums, no deductibles, no co-pays and no co-insurance. This kind of system is proven. It is providing affordable health care all across the developed world, and providing better health outcomes. It's the only fiscally sound approach to health care costs because it eliminates the inefficiencies of private insurance corporations, and provides effective cost controls. And it can’t reasonably be challenged on constitutional grounds."

Yesterday, in advance of today’s ruling, five leading advocates for Medicare for All threw their personal support behind Dr. Stein’s Green Party campaign with a national letter whose individual signers included the newly elected president of Physicians for a National Health Program, Dr. Andy Coates. Mark Dunlea of Single Payer New York said, "When Obama slammed the door in the face of single-payer advocates, and even abandoned the "public option", he forfeited any right to ask for support from those who are truly interested in solving our health care crisis. No genuine progressive will help him defend a Republican idea that will never work."

Concluded Dr. Stein, “The real leadership on health reform is being shown at the state level where single-payer legislation is moving forward. As President, I would take these successes to the national level so that no longer in America are working and poor people denied their inalienable rights to lead healthy lives.”


Physicians for a National Health Program
‘Health law upheld, but health needs still unmet’: national doctors group
Although the Supreme Court has upheld the Affordable Care Act, the law will not remedy the U.S. health crisis, physicians group says

The following statement was released today by leaders of Physicians for a National Health Program (www.pnhp.org). Their signatures appear below.

Although the Supreme Court has upheld the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the unfortunate reality is that the law, despite its modest benefits, is not a remedy to our health care crisis: (1) it will not achieve universal coverage, as it leaves at least 26 million uninsured, (2) it will not make health care affordable to Americans with insurance, because of high co-pays and gaps in coverage that leave patients vulnerable to financial ruin in the event of serious illness, and (3) it will not control costs.

Why is this so? Because the ACA perpetuates a dominant role for the private insurance industry. Each year, that industry siphons off hundreds of billions of health care dollars for overhead, profit and the paperwork it demands from doctors and hospitals; it denies care in order to increase insurers’ bottom line; and it obstructs any serious effort to control costs.

In contrast, a single-payer, improved-Medicare-for-all system would provide truly universal, comprehensive coverage; health security for our patients and their families; and cost control. It would do so by replacing private insurers with a single, nonprofit agency like Medicare that pays all medical bills, streamlines administration, and reins in costs for medications and other supplies through its bargaining clout.

Research shows the savings in administrative costs alone under a single-payer plan would amount to $400 billion annually, enough to provide quality coverage to everyone with no overall increase in U.S. health spending.

The major provisions of the ACA do not go into effect until 2014. Although we will be counseled to “wait and see” how this reform plays out, we’ve seen how comparable plans have worked in Massachusetts and other states. Those “reforms” have invariably failed our patients, foundering on the shoals of skyrocketing costs, even as the private insurers have continued to amass vast fortunes.

Our patients, our people and our national economy cannot wait any longer for an effective remedy to our health care woes. The stakes are too high.

Contrary to the claims of those who say we are “unrealistic,” a single-payer system is within practical reach. The most rapid way to achieve universal coverage would be to improve upon the existing Medicare program and expand it to cover people of all ages. There is legislation before Congress, notably H.R. 676, the “Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act,” which would do precisely that.

What is truly unrealistic is believing that we can provide universal and affordable health care in a system dominated by private insurers and Big Pharma.

The American people desperately need a universal health system that delivers comprehensive, equitable, compassionate and high-quality care, with free choice of provider and no financial barriers to access. Polls have repeatedly shown an improved Medicare for all, which meets these criteria, is the remedy preferred by two-thirds of the population. A solid majority of the medical profession now favors such an approach, as well.

We pledge to step up our work for the only equitable, financially responsible and humane cure for our health care ills: single-payer national health insurance, an expanded and improved Medicare for all.

Garrett Adams, M.D.
President

Andrew Coates, M.D.
President-elect

Oliver Fein, M.D.
Past President

Claudia Fegan, M.D.
Past President

David Himmelstein, M.D.
Co-founder

Steffie Woolhandler, M.D.
Co-founder

Quentin Young, M.D.
National Coordinator

Don McCanne, M.D.
Senior Health Policy Fellow

For a fact sheet on health care access, costs, safety-net and women’s health issues, and the evidence-based case for single-payer national health insurance, click here. For bios and video clips of selected PNHP spokespersons, click here.

Physicians for a National Health Program (www.pnhp.org) is an organization of more than 18,000 doctors who advocate for single-payer national health insurance. To speak with a physician/spokesperson in your area, visit www.pnhp.org/stateactions or call (312) 782-6006.


National Nurses United
Court Ruling Does Not End Healthcare Crisis Or the Need to Continue the Campaign for Reform

The Supreme Court decision should not be seen as the end of the efforts by health care activists for a permanent fix of our broken healthcare system, said the nation’s largest union and professional association of registered nurses today.

To achieve that end, the 175,000-member National Nurses United pledged to step up a campaign for a reform that is not based on extending the grip of a failed private insurance system, but “on a universal program based on patient need, not on profits or ability to pay. That’s Medicare for all,” said NNU Co-President Jean Ross, RN. “It is not time to stop, but a reminder to begin that effort anew.”

“Nurses experience the crisis our patients continue to endure every day. That’s the reason we will continue to work for reform that is universal, that doesn’t bankrupt families or leave patients in the often cruel hands of merciless insurance companies,” said NNU Co-president Karen Higgins, RN.

Stepping up the fight for Medicare for all is even more critical in the midst of the still persistent economic crisis,” added NNU Co-president Deborah Burger, RN, noting that nurses have seen broad declines in health status among patients related to loss of jobs, homes, and health coverage.

NNU has been holding free health screenings and hosting town halls on the ongoing healthcare crisis over the past two weeks – and hearing daily reminders of the ongoing plight of many patients. In addition, NNU will be joining with Michael Moore to host a national town hall later this summer.

“The continuing fiscal crisis at all levels of government and the anemic economic recovery remind us that rising healthcare costs and shifting costs to workers burden our society, cause much of these fiscal problems, and limit the opportunities for working people. Only real cost control through a national health program can solve this crisis. Improved Medicare meets that challenge,” said Ross.

“Medicare is far more effective than the broken private system in controlling costs and the waste that goes to insurance paperwork and profits, and it is universally popular, even among those who bitterly opposed the Obama law,” said Higgins. “Let’s open it up to everyone, no one should have to wait to be 65 to be guaranteed healthcare.”

The Affordable Care Act still leaves some 27 million people without health coverage, does little to constrain rising out of pocket health care costs, or to stop the all too routine denials of needed medical care by insurance companies because they don’t want to pay for it.

“Some opponents of expanding Medicare to cover everyone dismiss the idea as out of reach. If political opposition is the criteria for social progress, we would never have outlawed Jim Crow segregation, or won enactment of voting rights for women, Social Security, and the original Medicare,” said Burger.

“Nurses know how to fight for our patients. We fight every day to make sure our patients will get the care we need, and we are not about to stop,” Burger said.

The healthcare crisis is greater than ever, say nurses who see patients in distress every day. After all the attention on the court ruling fades, the problems will remain, said Higgins.

“We will continue to see a steady stream of employers dropping health coverage or shift more and more costs to their employees.”

Even after this decision, said Higgins, who was at the Supreme Court when the ruling was announced,

“We will continue to see patients who postpone filling prescription medications, or delay doctor-recommended diagnostic procedures or even life saving medical treatment because of the high out of pocket costs, or families faced with the terrible choice of paying for medical care or food or clothing, or who delay payment on medical bills at the risk of bankruptcy or a destroyed credit rating.”

“We will continue to see hospitals, insurance companies and drug companies engage in price gouging and insurance companies refusing to authorize treatment recommended by a doctor under the pretext it was “experimental” or “not medically necessary,” euphemisms for care that doesn’t meet the real test of a profit driven bottom line. “

“And we will continue to see the U.S. from falling farther behind other countries in a wide range of health barometers, including life expectancy, deaths of women of child bearing age, and long waits for care, even though we spend twice as much per capita or more than those other nations,” Higgins said.

The U.S. outspends all other nations per capita on care, yet trails dozens of other nations, which have a national system, such as our Medicare program, in a wide array of vital barometers, including life expectancy. While some of those countries are also mired in economic troubles due to the global banking crash, the presence of a national health system has softened the blow on peoples’ health.

NNU is joining one of the first post-decision public events Saturday, a fifth anniversary of Michael Moore’s film “SiCKO” chronicling the healthcare crisis. The event, featuring Moore and several of the real life stars of the film who continue to struggle with multiple problems in the health care system, will be held in Philadelphia at 7 p.m. at the Plays and Players Theater, 1714 Delancey St.

For more on the nurses campaign, see www.NursesHealAmerica.org.

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