Greens Call for Passage of Sanders' Bill

From On the Wilder Side:

The Green Party called for national support for legislation intoduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (Ind.-Vt.) for a single-payer national health system (Medicare For All) and urged Congress to reject Republican and Democratic plans to scale back Medicare.

“The Sanders bill does what needs to be done — it eliminates the control by health insurance companies over our medical care,” said Dr. John Battista, former Green Party candidate for state representative in Connecticut and co-author of his state’s single-payer legislation in 1999 (the Connecticut Health Care Security Act).  “Insurance companies pad the cost of health care by as much as 31% for profits, CEO salaries, and other unnecessary overhead such as managing care, while restricting and denying care to make even more money.  As a result, over 45 million Americans have no coverage, millions more have inadequate coverage, and the US has the most expensive, least cost-effective health system of all industrial democracies in the world.  For-profit health care has consistently been shown to result in poorer quality health care, and should be abolished, not subsidized.  International experience shows that single-payer improves health care while reducing costs, eliminating managed care, and providing increased access.” . . .

Libertarians Object to GOP Plans to Strengthen Obamacare

From Libertarian Republican:

WASHINGTON - Incoming Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor has said that Republicans now want to keep two significant parts of Obamacare: forcing insurance companies to offer coverage for people up to age 26 under their parents' policies, and forcing insurance companies to issue coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Libertarian Party (LP) Chair Mark Hinkle commented, "This switch is predictable. Republicans love to say the words 'less government,' but they always vote for more government. It's a shame that the big-government Republican Party succeeded in fooling Americans again on November 2. We tried to warn the tea partiers."

ME: Cutler Outlines Healthcare Policy

From Independent candidate for governor of Maine, Eliot Cutler:

To ensure that Mainers receive the most effective and highest quality care at a cost we can afford, the Cutler Administration will:

1. Align economic and program incentives to identify and reward high quality—not high volume—care.
2. Use State financial leverage to support efficient, high quality health care arrangements. The State is a direct purchaser of more than one-third of all Maine health care services, delivered through the mechanisms of MaineCare and via insurance coverage of public sector employees. These public dollars represent an enormous opportunity to advance state-wide delivery and financing reform that will benefit all Mainers.    
3. Assure that any savings derived from organizational and payment reforms are passed on to all Mainers in the form of premium reductions and expanded access.

Political Parasitism, Health Care Redux and Tea Party Anarchists

Some recent posts from Poli-Tea:

•Political Parasitism, Duopolist Propaganda and the Ongoing Hijacking of the Tea Party Movement by the Republican Party

•Republican Congressman: "Article I, Section 1, uhhhhh, is the, uhhhh, is the right to free speech"

•Health Care: Why Conservatives and Libertarians Should Support the Libertarian Party

•Health Care: Why Progressives Should Support the Green Party

•Tea Party Anarchists? Anarchist News and Info-Shop News Respond to Tea Party Rally Story

Green Party Calls for "Medicare for All"

From a Green Party press release calling for "Medicare for all":

Green candidates and party leaders said today that the passage of the Democratic health care bill, with its increased financial burdens on millions of Americans, should not slow the movement for Medicare For All (single-payer national health care) . . . 

Green Party Watch has more details.

Socialist Party Opposes Democrats' Health Insurance Industry Bailout

From the Memphis Socialist Party:

March 22, 2009- Co-chair of the Socialist Party USA, Billy Wharton, opposes the healthcare bill passed yesterday by the House of Representatives and scheduled to be signed into law by President Barack Obama on Tuesday. Wharton’s opposition is based on the belief that this bill is not a reform. Instead, it is a corporate restructuring of the health insurance industry created to protect the profit margins of private insurance companies.

MA: Independent Cahill Criticizes State and National Health Care Law

From the Boston Globe:

State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, an independent candidate for governor, today offered a wide-ranging and scathing criticism of the state’s universal health care law, saying it is bankrupting Massachusetts and will do the same nationally, if a similar plan is passed in Congress.

VA: Modern Whigs Propose Health Care Reform Alternative

Scotty at the Modern Whig blog writes:

While I've been saying for a while that Congress should abandon the Healthcare Reform effort for now and focus on the economy. Should someone try Reform after the economy recovers they should read this proposal and go with it...

This was made by the Virginia Whig Party and explores the idea of State/Local Level Health/Entitlement Co-Ops to replace Federal programs and therefore help allievate the burden on the Federal Budget..its a great read and makes alot of sense....

http://vawhigs.org/dp/County%20Cooperatives.pdf