Health Care

“Many politicians say they want all Americans have health insurance. I am not selling insurance… Fifty million Americans have no health care.  Even with the full implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act, millions will be left out.  AHCA was about health care reform within the context of the for-profit system.  America can and must do better.  We must move from a for-profit health care system that is controlled by insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies, to a not for profit system.   Universal, single payer, not for profit health care is the way of the future, providing access for all, lowering costs, and making ours a more just society.  For the past decade I have worked with Congressman John Conyers to promote legislation (HR676), which would accomplish these goals.  With your help and support I will continue to do so.” - Dennis

One person every 12 minutes – over 45,000 people a year – dies, due in large part to lack of health insurance. Our current system is not sustainable. If American businesses are to be competitive globally, we have to get them out from under the crushing weight of health care costs that are growing unchecked. Comprehensive health care for all is the number one domestic priority and needs to remain at the top of our national agenda.

Every American has the right to quality, affordable health care. It is a basic right guaranteed by the Constitution. The Preamble to the Constitution and Article 1, Section 8 both speak to promoting the general welfare. This is a foundational purpose of our government. Education, security for the elderly, and health care are matters that relate to the welfare of the people of the United States.

Our health care system is broken, and HR 676, the Conyers-Kucinich bill, is the only comprehensive solution to the problem. It is also the system endorsed by more than 14,000 physicians from Physicians for a National Health Program. Nearly 50 million Americans have no health care.

We must establish streamlined national health insurance – Medicare for All. It would be publicly financed health care, privately delivered, and will put patients and doctors back in control of the system. Insurance companies do not heal or treat anyone; physicians and health practitioners do. Study after study has shown that non-profit national health insurance will decrease total healthcare spending while providing more treatment and services-through reductions in bureaucracy and cost-cutting measures such as bulk purchasing of prescriptions drugs. Coverage will be more complete than private insurance plans, encourage prevention, and include prescription drugs, dental care, mental health care, and alternative and complementary medicine.

This kind of guaranteed health care is inevitable for the U.S. since we cannot afford – in lives or in money – to continue on our current track.  We will eventually get to the point where the U.S. government can no longer avoid a model with a long track record of success.  Dennis believes it will happen in the states first, as it did in Canada when the province of Saskatchewan led the way.  Already Vermont has signed a significant portion of guaranteed health care into law, and others are close behind.  But they require exemptions from the federal government to because existing federal laws that conflict with their new health care programs.  That is why Dennis has been leading the way in Congress for helping states deliver health care for all.  During the health care debate, he passed, with a bipartisan vote, an amendment to help clear the path for states to move forward.

Perhaps the clearest and most eloquent explanation of the Conyers-Kucinich National Health Insurance Bill was given on February 4, 2003, in Washington, D.C. by Dr. Marcia Angell in introducing H. R. 676:

Americans have the most expensive health care system in the world. We spend about twice as much per person as other developed nations, and that gap is growing. That's not because we are sicker or more demanding (Canadians, for example, see their doctors more often and spend more time in the hospital). And it's not because we get better results. By the usual measures of health (life expectancy, infant mortality, immunization rates), we do worse than most other developed countries.

Furthermore, we are the only developed nation that does not provide comprehensive health care to all its citizens. Some 42 million Americans are uninsured (nearly 50 million today -- updated figure) -- disproportionately the sick, the poor, and minorities -- and most of the rest of us are underinsured. In sum, our health care system is outrageously expensive, yet inadequate.

Why? The only plausible explanation is that there's something about our system -- about the way we finance and deliver health care -- that's enormously inefficient.”