For Immediate Release

Contact: Billy Wharton            Press Conference Tues. 1:00 pm City Hall
Cell: (718) 869-2279                Rally Weds. 4:30 pm 25 Beaver Street
Email: noprivatization@yahoo.com

Medicare Celebration to Highlight the Hazards of Private Health Insurance

A coalition of healthcare rights groups will hold a press conference on Tuesday July 29th at 1:00 pm on the steps of City Hall to speak against the proposed privatization of GHI & HIP and in support of Medicare's 43rd Birthday.

On Wednesday July 30th at 4:30 pm, healthcare rights groups will gather in front of the office of the New York Superintendent of the Insurance (25 Beaver Street) to celebrate the 43rd birthday of Medicare and speak out against the proposed privatization of GHI & HIP.  July 30th is a national day of celebration of Medicare which seeks to highlight the need for the improvement and expansion of the program into an all-inclusive Public National Health Insurance system as outlined in House Resolution 676.  Celebrations are planned in more than 20 other cities.

America is suffering under a healthcare care crisis produced by the private health insurance companies.  Nearly 50 million people have no health insurance and 20 million more are underinsured.  Every year tens of thousands of people die from treatable illness because of lack of access to care.  Healthcare costs have taxed family incomes and are now one of the leading causes of personal bankruptcy.  Yet, the health insurance industry proposes more of the same – further privatization!

Medicare and GHI/HIP are two of the latest targets.  The 2003 Medicare Modernization Act allowed private companies to reap profits from what had been a fully public system.  The resulting array of "donut-holes" and fees has pushed senior citizens to the brink of poverty and has already resulted in unnecessary deaths.  In December 2007 CEOs from GHI & HIP filed a petition to convert to for-profit status.  If approved, this change would remove important non-profit safeguards such as a 15% cap on administrative spending, limits on premium increases and restrictions on receiving funds from capital markets.  4 million subscribers in NY State, including 500,000 NY City workers, would be forced into a private health insurance market in the process of failing.

On July 30th, Healthcare-NOW, the Coalition Against Privatization and Private Health Insurance Must Go! along with other concerned New Yorkers will raise our voices in support of viewing healthcare as a human right.  Medicare's founding principles of complete coverage and universal access are a guide for how a publicly-funded system should function.  We will therefore call for the improvement and expansion of Medicare and ask the Superintendent of Insurance to "Just Say No!" to the proposed privatization of GHI & HIP.
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Tuesday 1:00 pm Press Conference at City Hall and Wednesday 4:30 pm Demonstration at 25 Beaver Street - For more information please contact Billy Wharton (718) 869-2279