The Green Party of New Jersey Health Care Platform

[A]ccording to the World Health Organization, the United States was ranked 37th among nations in the world regarding the quality of health care a country provides its people. This is not only embarrassing but also unacceptable. Western European countries provided for their people thirty to fifty years ago. Why can’t we do it now in a period of economic boom? It’s possible. We can make a difference. Together we can chart a new course. (Nomination Acceptance Speech, 6.25.00)

I think we are in a real transitory period, which gives us a real opportunity to recast our health cares system in a nonprofit mode and implement universal health care. (American Health Line, 03/21/00, Campaign 2000 — Ralph Nader: Stumps For Universal Health Care)

We should take all drugs developed with taxpayer dollars — that includes most AIDS drugs, on which the drug companies are getting windfall profits — and put price restraints on them. And instead of giving a monopoly on these drugs to just one company, multiple licenses should be issued to any company that wants to sell them. That would create competition and bring down prices. If there’s any opposition by the drug companies to this, government should say to them, "If you’re going to engage in profiteering, we’ll make them ourselves — and more cheaply than you." (POZ, President Nader! By Doug Ireland, 5/10/00)

[We need] universal health care from the cradle through the nursing home, with a single-payer system like Canada’s. In the U.S., 24 cents of every dollar spent on health care goes to administrative costs, but the Canadians spend only 11 cents. The difference could pay for covering the 47 million Americans who now have no health insurance. (POZ, President Nader! By Doug Ireland, 5/10/00)

The HMOs are destabilizing themselves by their own greed, by their manhandling of the professions in the medical and nursing areas, and their abuse of consumers. I think we are in a real transition period here that gives us a great opportunity to recast our health care system into a nonprofit mode and expand to universal health care. (The Sacramento Bee, Nader, in Sacramento, Says Outsider Status Is His Strength, By Lynda Gledhill)

From Catherine Parrish (NJ Congressional District 1 Green candidate):
Universal Health Care:
Implement a universal health care program to guarantee coverage to all Americans regardless of income

Support health care strategies focused on prevention, including health education, and natural medicines and remedies

Decriminalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Support a Patient's Bill of Rights to define and enforce the rights of insured patients, including greater access to specialists and emergency rooms, wider choice of health care providers, and appeal mechanisms when claims are denied; to all the right to sue when claims are denied; to provide the right of appeal when services are denied

Increase funding for AIDS programs, and allow states and local communities to use federal funds for needle-exchange programs to combat the spread of HIV

Support legislation to provide prescription drug coverage under Medicare

Protect reproductive rights and provide funding for family planning programs as a means to decrease the number of abortions.

Increase spending on Women's Health

From Aaron Kromash (NJ Congressional District 3 Green candidate):
[R]educe health care costs comprehensively, by providing universal coverage, eliminating HMOs, implementing federal oversight of drug and medical device companies…

From Earl Gray (NJ Congressional District 6 Green candidate):
Eliminate HMOs and Managed Care from the American health scene and replace them with a Comprehensive, Universal, Single-Payer, National Health Care System.

From Jerry Coleman (NJ Congressional District 7 Green candidate):
Provide Funds For The Construction Of Quality Schools And Health Care Facilities

From Lewis Pell (NJ Congressional District 9 Green candidate):
Radically reform our healthcare system to provide universal affordable single payer healthcare for all. It is a blot on our nation that we are the only western democratic society to have entered this millennium with an antiquated, grossly inefficient and inhumane for-profit healthcare system still in place.

From Carl Mayer (NJ Congressional District 12 Green candidate):
I am the only candidate in the race to support a universal national health insurance plan for all Americans. In the last 8 years more Americans have slipped through the health care safety net, so that 45 million Americans have no coverage, compared to 35 million Americans 8 years ago. You can read more about this in my book: Shakdown:The Fleecing Of The Garden State. Go to my website at:www.evoiceofthepeople.com for excerpts.

From Claudette Meliere (NJ Congressional District 13 Green candidate):
Develop a Universal Health Care Plan to replace the current system of HMOs and private insurance companies. Provide prescription drugs at affordable rates. Medical care is a right that every resident is entitled to.

From the Green Party platform:
HEALTH CARE
Fundamental reform of our nation’s health care system is necessary to provide affordable, quality and accessible health care for all Americans. Currently, we are the only industrialized country without a national health care system. Unfortunately, we have a private insurance system that insures only the healthiest people, systematically denying coverage to individuals with “pre-existing” conditions and routinely terminating coverage to those who become ill.

The Green Party considers health care a human right, and therefore supports a single-payer national insurance program for the United States. This program would be publicly financed at the national level, administered locally, and privately delivered, i.e., private physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers would remain private and competitive, and consumers given full choice of provider.

It would cover all standard medical procedures, treatment, diagnosis, etc. as well as drug treatment, dental care, medication, chronic and terminal illness, and abortion. The program must include equal coverage for treatment of mental illness. All Americans must be covered under this plan, regardless of employment, income, housing, age, or prior medical condition.

The Green Party believes, based on comparison with other nations that have enacted similar programs, that such a program would be more economical and would save money in many areas. In order to enact this program, we must dismantle the current managed care system.

The current system’s high costs and widely recognized failures demand that bold, not incremental steps, be taken.

1. Alongside the many Americans calling for action that makes health care a right, not a privilege, the Green Party states with a clear voice its strong support for UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE.

2. We call for passage of legislation at the national and state level that guarantees comprehensive benefits for all Americans. A single-insurer system funded by the federal government and administered at the state and local levels remains viable and is an essential barometer of our national health and well being.

3. We support maintaining private medical providers, including doctors, hospitals and clinics…

4. As we support cost savings by small business, we note it is estimated that businesses will save significantly compared to their current premiums – an estimated $900 billion – under a proposed SINGLE-PAYER “National Health Trust Fund” plan.

5. We endorse NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE and demand that Congress again propose and act to support the practical and moral imperative of Universal Health Care. Major features of this health care legislation should include:

a.) UNIVERSAL ACCESS without concern for work status or health history;

b.) FREEDOM OF HEALTH CARE CHOICE so patients can choose their own clinics, doctors or other health care professionals;

c.) substantial COST SAVINGS through annual, global budgets, national fee schedules, and streamlined administration which acts to eliminate the waste of the current system;

d.) COMPREHENSIVE BENEFITS, without insurance premiums, deductibles or co-payments, including hospital and physician care, prescription drugs, dental and vision care, reproductive and preventative care, and defined mental health benefits;

e.) a focus on RURAL HEALTH SERVICES;

f.) and continued support of MEDICAL RESEARCH into the quality, effectiveness and appropriateness of medical care.

6. MEDICARE provides health care for nearly 40 million Americans over the age of 65. Medicare: Part A is financed by the Medicare Trust Fund, which is replenished by payroll taxes. But as the major portion of the Fund’s financing moves from these dedicated payroll taxes and premiums to general funds, the Fund’s trustees predict insolvency looms, putting Medicare is at risk. In order to correct this, we would vigorously pursue savings and cuts from abundant waste and fraud, eliminate costly, unnecessary services that benefit providers more than patients, and rein in pharmaceutical industry rip-offs.

7. MEDICAID, which pays for basic medical assistance for the disabled, blind, pregnant women, and children in families who have no insurance, also must be protected and put on a firm financial footing.

8. The prices of all kinds of medication must be publicly supervised, with federal controls, and be set with respect to the needs of patients and consumers, instead of demands for commercial profit.

9. Successful reform of our health care system must start with WELLNESS education; that is, PREVENTATIVE healthcare. It is each of our responsibilities to tend to our own health through education, diet, nutrition and exercise.

10. The Surgeon General has stated that a large percentage of illness is diet related; therefore improving the quality of our nation’s FOOD SUPPLY and our personal eating habits will go a long way toward improving our health care system – by reducing the need for care.

11. We support a wide-range of health care services, not just traditional medicine that too often emphasizes “a medical arms race” relying upon high-tech intervention and surgical techniques.

12. We support the teaching of holistic health approaches and, as appropriate, the use of complementary and alternative therapies such as herbal medicines, homeopathy, acupuncture, and other healing approaches.

13. We oppose the arrest, harassment or prosecution of anyone involved in any aspect of the production, cultivation, transportation, distribution or consumption of medicinal marijuana. We also oppose the harassment, prosecution or revocation of license of any health-care provider who gives a recommendation or prescription for medicinal marijuana.

14. As a matter of appropriate professional responsibility, we support INFORMED CONSENT LAWS to educate consumers to potential health impacts.

15. PRIMARY CARE, through a renewed attention to family medicine as opposed to increased medical specialization, is appropriate and necessary.

16. Special attention must be given to WOMEN’S HEALTH ISSUES, including reproductive rights and family planning.

17. We believe the right of a woman to control her own body is inalienable. It is essential that the option of a safe, legal abortion remains available.

18. Medical research must be increased, and alternative therapies actively sought, to combat breast cancer.

19. We call for adequate SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES being made available to those who have special needs: the mentally ill, the handicapped, those who are terminally ill.

20. We call for wider implementation of hospice care.

21. We believe an all out campaign must be waged against AIDS and HIV, and we will press for the implementation of the recommendations of the National Commission on AIDS. We call for prevention awareness and access to condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS. We condemn HIV-related discrimination; would make drug treatment and other programs available for all addicts who seek help; would expand clinical trials for treatments and vaccines; and speed up the FDA drug approval process.

22. In matters of international trade, the United States must respect the measures other nations take to ensure public health, and must not use medication, medical equipment, and other medical necessities -- and threats of withholding them -- as leverage for political reasons or as extortion for the sake of commercial profit. We oppose any embargo or economic sanction that would cause the suffering of innocent civilians.

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