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Democracy For The Southern Adirondack/Tricounty Area
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
 
DEMOCRACY FOR THE GREATER GLENS FALLS AREA PASSES RESOLUTION TO REP. MURPHY ON HEALTHCARE REFORM BILL

PRESS RELEASE


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


November 5, 2009


DEMOCRACY FOR THE GREATER GLENS FALLS AREA PASSES RESOLUTION TO REP. MURPHY ON HEALTHCARE REFORM BILL


At its regular Wednesday, November 4th meeting at the Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe, Glens Falls DFA passed the following resolution to Rep. Scott Murphy.


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Democracy For The Greater Glens Falls Area debated and unanimously approved the following resolution at its November 4th meeting:


We believe Rep. Murphy should support the present House healthcare bill. It is important for us to move forward on this issue. However, we feel the present bill has many serious, even grave, failings, and we urge Rep. Murphy to endeavor as best he can to improve the bill, and even after its passage, to work to continue to improve it.


Specifically:


1. We urge the restoration of the Kucinich Amendment protecting the rights of states to create their own single-payer healthcare systems. One of the strengths of our Federal system is the states are innovation laboratories. This is precious and must be preserved.


2. There must be a Right To Private Action in the bill. If, for instance, an insurance company suddenly discontinues a service, individuals must have a right to go to court and sue. (This recently happened to one of our members, without warning.) This right needs to be both in the basic law, and incorporated into the language of individual policies.


3. We are deeply concerned at the steadily shrinking number of people eligible for the public option. We believe in principle that the public option should be open to everyone, it must not be regarded as, or degraded into, an option of last resort. The broadest pool will yield the greatest economies of scale and produce whatever hypothetical efficiencies competition may produce. It is also a matter of simple justice and rights. There must be real choice.


4. The Public Option and other provisions should be initiated much sooner than 2013. The drawn out timetable is unacceptable.


5. The cap on income subject to FICA payments should be removed to help pay for healthcare.


6. Medicare Advantage programs should be eliminated. They are inefficient, costly, and benefit companies not Medicare recipients.


7. It is good that Medicaid eligibility is being raised to 150% of the Federal Poverty Level. However, that is merely a start. It would be both more cost-effective, productive and fairer, to raise the eligibility threshold to 250% or even 300% of the FPL. At incomes over 150% of the FPL, most working people will still not be able to afford insurance, even with the projected subsidies to buy insurance, so subsidies, essentially, are not worth it.


8. Above all, it is simply imperative that the Public Option must cost less than any private insurance. Since this effort's moment of inception, our party has told the American people the Public Option will cost less and also promote competition. Obviously, there will be no competitive incentives if it costs more-- in fact, if it costs more, the Public Option will likely actually serve to drive up the cost of the private plans.

Democrats must deliver on this fundamental covenant, the Public Option must cost less than any private plan, failure to do will invite disaster.

Cost is one of the reasons we support the Kucinich Amendment and single-payer. Single-payer is by far the most cost-effective and economical solution, as well as fairer, as the experience in Canada and most other countries have proven. It is also the most powerful route to restore the U.S. to international trade competitiveness. Cost is also why we feel the Public Option must be open to all-- that is the way to reduce costs for everyone, it is axiomatic that the smaller the pool, the higher the cost.


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Comments:
I thought that Murphy would be more of a statesman. Disgusting!
 
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