Connecticut Green Times

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Monday, November 16, 2009

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org

Greens blast the anti-choice Stupak Amendment in the Democrats’ health care bill, predict voter anger and defections from the Democratic Party over the amendment

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on women’s rights: http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-womens-rights.php / on health care reform: http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-health-care.php

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party leaders today called the Stupak Amendment in the recently passed US House bill on health care reform a disaster for women’s reproductive rights and a betrayal of the Democrats’ stated support for women’s rights and well-being.

Many Greens foresee growing anger among Democratic voters, especially women, and possible defections from the Democratic Party over the amendment.

The Stupak Amendment to HR 3962 states that any health care plan purchased with any federal subsidy cannot cover abortion services, even with private funds, and prohibits the public plan from covering abortion care.  The amendment will make it more difficult and expensive for anyone to purchase a plan with abortion coverage and discourages insurers and employers who provide health care benefits from affording such coverage.

The Green Party has criticized the Democrats’ health care proposal because it leaves the insurance and pharmaceutical industries in control of health care and fails to provide universal coverage: see “Greens urge defeat of the Democrats’ ‘insurance industry life-support’ bill in the US Senate and call for a rally of efforts to enact Single-Payer/Medicare For All,” press release, November 10 (http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=262).

The Green Party supports full reproductive rights, including uncompromised access to abortion services for women (http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/socjustice.html#998980 / http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/socjustice.html#1012830).

“Michigan Greens targeted Bart Stupak’s District One seat in Congress with the candidacy of Jean Treacy, who challenged his opposition to women’s rights, including the freedom to choose.  The Stupak Amendment is the sharpest blow against poor women and their rights since the Hyde Amendment.  It was proposed by a Democrat and passed by a Democratic Congress.  We challenge feminists, feminist and progressive organizations, and all Americans who support rights and equality for women to stop supporting candidates who retreat from these principles, and to vote Green instead,” said Candace Caveny, Green candidate for the US House in Michigan’s 10th District (http://www.candacecaveny.org) in 2010.

Greens called the Stupak Amendment a direct consequence of a public debate on health care reform that has been mostly limited to Republican ‘no reform’ versus Democratic ‘faux reform.’

“It’s urgent that advocates of universal health care and women’s rights push harder now for Single-Payer,” said Morgen D’Arc, co-founder and spokesperson for the National Women’s Caucus of the Green Party.  “If the Senate version of HR 3962 gets passed with the loss of abortion coverage for women, Americans will soon realize that, along with this serious downgrade in coverage for women, the bill offers only minimal reform overall and creates new financial burdens for many while channeling more taxpayer money into insurance companies’ already bloated profit margins.  Poor women and women of color are the least likely to be helped by the House Democrats’ plan and the most likely to suffer under the Stupak Amendment.  Unless advocates for Single-Payer reject the Democratic Party bill and continue to fight for real universal health care, the resulting frustration and disappointment among millions of Americans will lead to more power for anti-women
Republicans and Democrats.”

“I reregistered Green many years ago because Democratic Party leaders made too many compromises on reproductive rights. Greens believe reproductive rights are non-negotiable.” said Marnie Glickman, member of the party’s National Women’s Caucus and a former national co-chair of the party.  “Feminism is one of the Green Party’s key values.  Until Greens gain seats in Congress and state legislatures and we end two-party control, women’s rights face compromise and repeal.”

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
• Green candidate database and campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections
• Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

“Face it: The Democratic Party is not for women”
By Kate Harding, Salon.com, November 10, 2009
http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/feature/2009/11/10/stupak_stupidity

“Health Reform: Implications for Women’s Access to Coverage and Care”
Kaiser Family Foundation, October 2009
http://www.kff.org/womenshealth/upload/7987.pdf

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United States
Fall 2009 issue now online
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog

~ END ~

First District Congressman John Larson answered 24 questions from a Manchester audience yesterday, assuring the crowd of about 100 people that he would try his hardest to get a public insurance option in the health care bill now under construction in Congress and that the President would sign such a bill if it passed both houses. The town-meeting-style assembly to discuss health care legislation included brief remarks from a Boston physician and about an hour of questions from the audience.

Most in the audience were single-payer advocates and a considerable number were part of organized advocacy groups. Larson addressed this crowd directly in saying that he “gets it” on health care financing. He says he’s committed to a “uniquely American” approach, preserving existing health insurance schemes and adding a Medicare-type option for anybody who wants it. He said he’s not for single-payer insurance–Medicare for all–because it doesn’t have enough support to pass in the House of Representatives.

Larson expressed concern about the 40,000 people in Connecticut who work in the insurance industry. He seems to believe they will all lose their jobs immediately if the government provides taxpayer-funded health care. Challenged to impose party discipline on the health care issue as chairman of the House Democratic caucus, he wouldn’t commit to any action against Democrats who oppose a public option.

He was defiant of a couple of anti-immigration hecklers who were concerned that the nation spends billions on health care for illegals. He mentioned that those here without papers are mostly hard-working people like the rest of us and that the government should deal with them humanely.

He could have answered more questions, but his style–padding his responses with lots of pleasant-sounding flourishes–always leaves some questions hanging.

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party leaders and health care activists called
for new federal studies on the economic feasibility and impact of a
Single-Payer (Medicare For All, HR 676) national health care program.
The study should cover overall and ongoing costs and savings, not just
government spending.

Greens cited past studies from the General Accounting Office (GAO) and
the Congressional Budget Office in the 1990s showing that Single-Payer
would reduce the cost of health care while covering every American.
The Green Party will make health care reform and the demand for
Single-Payer a major focus of the party’s 2009 Annual National Meeting
in Durham, North Carolina, July 23-26
(http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=222).

According to a 1991 GAO report, “If the US were to shift to a system
of universal coverage and a single payer, as in Canada, the savings in
administrative costs [10 percent of health spending] would be more
than enough to offset the expense of universal coverage.” (”Canadian
Health Insurance: Lessons for the United States,”
http://archive.gao.gov/d20t9/144039.pdf). More reports are archived
at pnhp.org (http://www.pnhp.org/facts/single_payer_system_cost.php?page=all).

“The overall savings we’d gain from Single-Payer will boost the ailing
economy and will cut bankruptcies by nearly two thirds,” said Jody
Grage, treasurer of the Green Party of the United States, who noted a
recent Harvard study showing that “Medical problems contributed to
nearly two-thirds (62.1 percent) of all bankruptcies in 2007″
(Physicians for a National Health Program press release, June 4, 2009,
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/june/illness_medical_bil.php).

“The ‘public health care option’ supported by Sen. Kennedy and many
other Democrats will leave the private insurance industry intact and
lead to increased health care spending, especially if mandates lead to
big taxpayer-funded subsidies for insurance and HMO companies and the
high overhead they add to health care spending. We challenge Congress
and President Obama to consult the GAO and Congressional Budget Office
on the costs and benefits of Single-Payer,” said Ms. Grage.

The Green Party has challenged Sen. Max Baucus and other Single-Payer
opponents to hold a public debate, broadcast nationally, with
Single-Payer advocates
(http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=221). Sen. Baucus has
received more campaign money from the health insurance and
pharmaceutical industries over the last four years than any other
Democrat in Congress — $413,000 since 2005, with only Republicans
John McCain and Mitch McConnell receiving more (http://www.Consumer
Watchdog.org).

Greens said that such a debate is urgently necessary because of the
lies and distortions about Single-Payer and health care reform coming
from the Wall Street Journal
(http://mediamatters.org/blog/200906160005), Conservatives for
Patients’ Rights, and other opponents of health care reform. See also
“Debunking Canadian Health Care Myths” by Rhonda Hackett, The Denver
Post, June 7 (http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_12523427).

“Apologists for profit-making insurance companies are dishonestly
trying to paint Single-Payer as expensive and radical. In fact,
Single-Payer is more fiscally conservative, because it’ll eliminate
the high overhead of private insurance. Secondly, Single-Payer allows
full choice of physician, which will restore the American tradition of
family doctors who get to know their patients’ health care needs.
Instead of an insurance company or HMO bureaucracy restricting
treatment and referrals, Single-Payer will bring back the days when
patients and physicians made decisions about medical care,” said
Justine McCabe, Connecticut Green, clinical psychologist, and
co-author of statewide Single-Payer bill, 1999-2000
(http://www.gp.org/speakers/detail.php?ID=35).

“And finally, under a Single-Payer plan, no one will suffer financial
ruin because of medical expenses,” said Dr. McCabe.

“Unfortunately, President Obama and congressional leaders insist that
we all spend more money on health care, with taxes on health-care
benefits, to pay for ‘reform’ that would still leave tens of millions
uninsured and underinsured. At the same time, they don’t want
Americans to hear about the benefits of Single-Payer — even though
they admit it would save money, cover everyone, and give us the right
to choose our doctors,” said Angel Torres, co-chair of the Maricopa
Greens (http://maricopagreens.org), which held a Single-Payer rally in
front of the office of Arizona Rep. Harry Mitchell on May 30 to
persuade him to sign on as a co-sponsor of HR 676.

From Steve Fournier, co-chair

At an executive board meeting in Hartford last week, planning for the state central committee meeting next Tuesday, we resolved to commence a Green Party petition drive in support of HR676, Medicare for all, now pending in the House of Representatives.

This was deemed follow-up to a decision made at the May state meeting to petition for universal health care. There was some discussion at the May meeting of putting together a package petitioning for a Green Party health care plan with an explanatory pamphlet for people signing the petition.

Since the May meeting, there were signs that universal health care had advanced a bit, with Max Baucus, chair of the senate committee handling health care financing, bending a bit in response to public pressure and civil disobedience and HR676 adding several co-sponsors in the House.

I mentioned these developments at the executive board meeting and moved to involve the party now, getting behind HR676 and not waiting for another state meeting to discuss it further. The word is that Congress wants to pass something by the end of July, and so I argued that we might have to dispense with further discussion.

I drafted a petition, posted it on line (www.stepfour.com/petition), and passed around a link to it. As far as I know, nobody’s picked it up, so we’ll see where discussion leads at next Tuesday’s meeting.

P.S. Send me copy to publish here. There should be at least one item every day.