resolution

RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF
SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE

WHEREAS health care costs have grown enormously in the past five years to more than two trillion dollars annually;

WHEREAS expenditures per capita on health care in the U.S. are more than twice that of most other countries, and yet the World Health Organization ranks the U.S. health care system as only the 37th best in the world, considering such factors as quality, affordability, access, and outcomes;

WHEREAS 47 million Americans have no health insurance at all, approximately 50 million are under-insured, and Texas ranks first in the nation with the percentage of uninsured persons, including the highest rate of uninsured children;

WHEREAS administrative expenses amount to 31% of the total cost of health care in the current, for-profit insurance-based system, as opposed to only 3% of the total cost of health care administered by Medicare;

WHEREAS expansion of the Medicare system to cover all Americans would save more than $100 billion annually while at the same time protecting Americans from the catastrophic financial consequences that millions of Americans face every day as a result of the current system;

WHEREAS universal, single-payer health care based on an expansion of the current Medicare system is provided for in The United States National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 676), which was introduced in Congress in 2003;

WHEREAS presidential candidates have drafted plans that claim to provide "universal health care" while retaining the for-profit nature of the health insurance industry, thereby failing to address the larger problems with the current system, instead merely mandating that everyone buy health insurance; and

WHEREAS the mere provision of universal health insurance does not guarantee that all Americans will be provided the health care that they need, but leaves them subject to the whims of insurance companies who profit from denial of needed treatment,

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that we, the delegates assembled in Convention, representing the highest level of authority within the Texas Democratic Party, call upon our Democratic Congressional delegation to advocate and support legislation to establish a universal, single-payer health insurance program of publicly financed and privately delivered health care as an improved and expanded Medicare for all Americans, covering all medically necessary services by the physician of their choice, without any co-pays or deductibles.

Submitted to and Adopted by Precinct ______
in ______________ County, Texas,
Senatorial District ______
on March 4, 2008.

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Convention secretary