Alliance for

Democracy
Washington DC Office
3407 34th Place NW
Washington DC 20016
202-
202-244-
244-0561
rcaplan@igc.org

For release: January 28, 2009

Contact:
Nancy Price, Co-Chair, Alliance for Democracy 530-758-0726 PST
Barbara Clancy, Communications Coordinator 781-894-1179 EST

The Alliance for Democracy joins the Leadership Conference in support of HR676 to
provide Single-Payer Guaranteed Health Care to all Americans. Congress must put an
end to the costly paperwork generated by the hundreds of complicated and redundant
private insurance plans currently imposed on doctors' offices and hospitals by for-profit
health insurance corporations. The estimated $350 billion in annual costs incurred for
administrative overhead should be redirected to keeping Americans healthy through
comprehensive Medicare for All insurance.

No one should be deprived of health services and care because of income, employment,
insurance or health status, place of residence, or race. It is time to put an end to the
influence of corporate lobbyists in Washington and to let the voice of the people be
heard. Poll after poll shows that Americans want a health care system that puts an end
to the abuses of the current private health insurance system: increasing numbers of
uninsured, unnecessary deaths due to lack of health insurance or timely access to care,
spiraling out-of-control costs, and personal bankruptcies over half of which are due to
medical debt. The healthcare crisis is deepening as hundreds of thousands of people
lose their jobs and healthcare benefits.

It is time to fix a system that delivers profits to the health insurance industry at the
expense of people, their families and our communities. Of 28 industrialized nations with
single payer universal care systems like the type proposed in HR 676, privately delivered
– publicly financed, none spend as much per capita as the United States. At the same
time, tragically, the U.S. ranks near the bottom among industrialized countries in
indicators from life expectancy (20th) to infant mortality (23rd). A single-payer system will
guarantee the human right to health by including full healthcare coverage for people of
all ages, establishing a universal standard of benefits and care, instituting effective costs
controls, cutting administrative waste, and ending insurance industry interference with
fair and timely access to adequate and appropriate care.

Equally important, a single-payer system as in HR 676 will contribute to the economic

recovery of Main Street as documented by the just-released study, “Single
Payer/Medicare for All: An Economic Stimulus Plan for the Nation.”

P.O. Box 540115 • Waltham, MA • 02454 • Tele: (781) 894-1179 • E-mail: afd@thealliancefordemocracy.org
www.thealliancefordemocracy.org