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Ralph Nader on Health Care
"All the candidates -- McCain, Obama and Clinton -- are against single-payer health insurance, full Medicare for all. I'm for it, [along with] millions of Americans and 59% of physicians in a forthcoming poll this April [2008]."
Support H.R. 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act (USNHI). This bill would establish a unique American universal health insurance program with single payer financing.
JIM LEHRER: What about health care? Would you favor a government-financed, a government across-the-board health care system? RALPH NADER: "Half of it now is government financed: Medicare, Medicaid, federal, state and local health plans, for example. The rest is when you have a single payer plan, which covers everybody in accessible health care, you save $100 billion in billing fraud and abuse, that's the estimate the General Accounting Office -- you save enormous administrative costs, maybe 12 cents on the dollar."
His single-payer idea contrasts with Clinton’s and Obama’s plans, which wouldn’t be funded solely by the government.
Ralph Nader said today that health care in the U.S. should be provided by a national health insurance program providing comprehensive benefits to all Americans and funded directly by the federal government under a “single-payer” system.
[During the 2000 election, Nader] regularly recited a plan for funding universal healthcare - aiding 45 million uninsured Americans - by means of a 3.5% payroll levy on employers combined with a tax on stock transactions that would generate $120 billion annually.
Nader: Crusader, Spoiler, Icon, by Justin Martin, p.252 Sep 1, 2002
Ralph Nader "supports a single-payer health care plan that replaces for-profit, investor-owned health care and removes the private health insurance industry. He favors replacing our fragmented, market-based system with a single-payer health plan--where the government finances health care, but keeps the delivery of health care to private nonprofits, and allows free choice of doctors and hospitals for patients.
Green Party 2008 Presidential Candidate Questionnaire Feb 3, 2008
"The state of health care in the United States is a disgrace. For millions of Americans it is a struggle between life, health and money. The Nader Campaign supports a single-payer health care plan that replaces for-profit, investor-owned health care and removes the private health insurance industry (full Medicare for all)." [Including children under-18]
"In addition to leaving broad segments of the population uninsured or under-insured, the U.S. health care system has many other important faults that could be remedied by a system of universal coverage. These include serious gaps in coverage for: prescription drugs and medical supplies; dental, vision and hearing care; long-term care; mental health care; preventive care for children; and treatment for substance abuse."
[During the 2000 election, Nader] regularly recited a plan for funding universal healthcare-- aiding 45 million uninsured Americans--by means of a 3.5% payroll levy on employers combined with a tax on stock transactions that would generate $120 billion annually.
"Nader: Crusader, Spoiler, Icon" by Justin Martin, p.252 Sep 1, 2002
Ralph Nader "supports a single-payer health care plan that replaces for-profit, investor-owned health care and removes the private health insurance industry. He favors replacing our fragmented, market-based system with a single-payer health plan--where the government finances health care, but keeps the delivery of health care to private nonprofits, and allows free choice of doctors and hospitals for patients."
Green Party 2008 Presidential Candidate Questionnaire Feb 3, 2008
[Nader] Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding health care. [Did NOT indicate support] i) Offer tax credits to individuals and small businesses to offset the cost of insurance coverage.
"Providing universal health care can only be accomplished through a single-payer system: no country ever achieved universal coverage with private health insurance. President Harry Truman proposed universal health care in 1948 but was rebuffed by Congress. The time to act is yesterday. Let us end our disastrous descent into the corporatization of medicine and its callous consequences."