Single-Payer Health System Only Solution to Health Care Crisis, Kucinich Says
By Marie Horrigan | 4:53 PM; Oct. 25, 2007
As the sole Democratic presidential candidate advocating a nationalized health coverage system, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio underscored his progressive credentials on Thursday by arguing the only solution for the country’s health care crisis is to have the government be the only payer of health care services.
“I am the one candidate — the one candidate — who stands here with and for the American people, and I do so with an understanding of what people go through,” he said.
Kucinich spoke at a forum in Washington held by Families USA and Federation of American Hospitals, which have scheduled a series of appearances by presidential candidates to discuss their health care proposals. Another White House aspirant, Democratic Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, was scheduled to address a separate forum later on Thursday.
“I am the only candidate running who is talking about a single-payer, not-for-profit health care system — Medicare for all. ... None of the other candidates will take the stand that I’m taking, and the American people have a right to ask why,” Kucinich said.
Asserting that health care coverage is “a basic right in a democratic society,” Kucinich said that mandated universal health care systems offered by other Democrats, including front-running Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, were no different than plans offered by Republicans.
“Can the maintenance of a for-profit system serve the American people? I don’t think that it can,” he said. Special interests, including the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, had effectively coopted his Democratic colleagues, Kucinich said. “Health is being used as an engine to accelerate the wealth of the nation upwards,” he said.
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