Reform health care in the U.S.A. now

Released: Thursday, March 26, 2009 BURLINGTON, VT

Howard Dean launched a new campaign yesterday evening on a Democracy for America conference call with thousands of supporters across the country. The former chair of the DNC called on Congress to pass healthcare reform which includes a universally available public option, such as Medicare.

"Healthcare reform legislation rises and falls on whether the American public is allowed to choose a universally available public option, like Medicare, or not."

"If we are allowed to choose a public option like Medicare, the bill will be real healthcare reform. If we're not, we could be back fighting about it for another 20 years before anybody tries again."

~Governor Howard Dean, M.D.

Dr. Dean's announcement comes at a time when insurance companies and HMO's have vowed to fight President Obama on his campaign promise to include a publicly available option in the healthcare reform he wants passed by Congress this year.

"The battle against real healthcare reform already begun. Our Stand With Dr. Dean campaign will ensure that policy makers in DC hear from every American, not just big money who will stop at nothing to retain the status quo."

~Arshad Hasan, Executive Director of Democracy For America.

As a first step in the campaign, Dr. Dean asked supporters to add their name to a petition statement at www.StandwithDrDean.com. The campaign will be run by Governor Dean and Democracy For America. This is the beginning of a multi-pronged campaign which will generate broad based support for a public option through neighborhood canvasses, meetings with legislators, running ads in targeted districts, and more. The organization expects to deliver over 250,000 signatures to members of Congress in the weeks to come.

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I know it’s fashionable in certain circles to say government can’t get things done - but big insurance has had decades of control over our medical decisions and costs, and they sure aren’t getting it done right. We pay more per capita than any other nation, yet the results are high costs and millions with no coverage at all. Let’s put an end to bureaucrats at insurance companies making decisions about our medication and treatment now, those decisions should be left to skilled doctors and nurses interested in our well-being, not accountants and CEOs interested in their bottom lines.

Health insurance industry red tape hurts - it adds no value

It's time to put doctors and nurses back in charge of medical decisions. If you think government can't get anything right, ask yourself: has big insurance been getting health care right? No way.The insurance industry profits by taking roughly 1/3 of the money going to health care to pay for overhead while they overturn the decisions of doctors to pay executive bonuses.

Big insurance companies make so much money that they spend millions of dollars on lobbyists every year in DC, yet costs are outrageous and a disgraceful number of people don't even have coverage. Obviously there's big money working to keep the status quo or this would have been fixed decades ago. Instead of reform, instead of the kind of continuous quality improvement they apply to their internal functions, we get red tape - we get misinformation trying to label any reforms as "socialized medicine" while medical decisions are made by bureaucrats.

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