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MEDIA RELEASE For immediate release: Thursday, October 3, 2002
Houghton Appalled by Lack of Available Health Care for Delawareans
Supports the Delaware Health Security Act to meet Delaware¹s health care needs
Contact:
Robert Bohm, Campaign Coordinator
(302)239-2572 rebsalerno@msn.com
Wilmington - Vivian Houghton, Green Party Candidate for Attorney General, today reiterated her strong support for the Delaware Health Security Act. ³It is clear to me that Delaware¹s poor and working families are suffering terribly due to a lack of basic health care being available to them,² said Houghton. ³We can no longer wait for a national health care program to see to our citizens needs. Delaware must and can provide universal health care to all its citizens.²
According to recent estimates there are 96,000 uninsured Delawareans. A large portion of them are the working poor, who do not qualify for Medicaid, are not provided health insurance by their employers, and whose income is insufficient to purchase basic health care coverage. Some 32,000 children in Delaware, nearly one out of every six, are without health insurance. Over 27% of our poorest families with children are estimated to be without means to pay for health care.
³We are fooling ourselves to think that market competition in the health insurance field will lead to better coverage for people in Delaware,² said J. Roy Cannon, Green Party member and Mental Health Counselor. He cited Pauline Rosenau whose 2001 study found that market based reform has not expanded health insurance coverage. Instead, it has increased the number of under insured and underinsured. ³Like it did in banning smoking in public places, Delaware can take the lead in improving the health of its people by passing a single-payer universal health care plan that uses the existing medical system but ensures that everyone has access to it. I know that as Attorney General, Vivian Houghton will work with us to see this vision of health care made available for all Delaware citizens come to reality.²
³We need to move beyond piece-meal and incremental efforts to make sure our citizens can access health care,² said Karen
Lienau, Wilmington Social Worker and Green Party member who works with some of Delaware¹s poorest families . ³Vivian Houghton knows this and is willing to stand up and put people¹s needs first. The huge insurance companies don¹t need our protection - Delaware¹s poor and working poor do.²
In her People First¹ campaign, Houghton also noted her immediate plans to enforce medical parity laws when elected Delaware¹s Attorney General with regards to mental and physical health, no matter what a persons age, economic situation or race/ethnicity.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Committee to Elect Vivian Houghton Attorney General
800 West Street
Wilmington, Delaware 19801
(302)239-2572
agcandidate@vivianhoughton.com
http://vivianhoughton.com/vivian
Green Party of Delaware
P. O. Box 6044
Wilmington, Delaware 19804
(302)738-9963
greenpartyde@yahoo.com
http://www.gpde.org
Green Party of the United States
1314 18th Street, Lower Level
Washington, D.C. 20036
866-41GREEN (toll free)
info@greenpartyus.org
http://greenpartyus.org
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