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Healthcare is a Human Right We do not have the time to wait or the lives to spare

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) keeps private insurance business in charge of healthcare, not the patients or the public. Cost will continue to skyrocket. Insurance companies, not patients or doctors, will still control basic decisions. Millions will remain uninsured or underinsured. When the ACA is set up in Maine, thousands are still expected to remain uninsured and many more will struggle with high premiums, deductibles, and co-pays. Only by expanding our guaranteed healthcare program, Medicare, to cover all Americans will we be able to solve our national healthcare crisis once and for all. While there is a federal bill, many states including Vermont are moving forward to fix their healthcare systems because too many lives are at stake to wait. The Maine Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign is organizing right now to change the broken way healthcare is delivered in the state according to the following principles.

Here is how it works:

• Everybody in, nobody out. No exclusions based on ability to pay, health status, or prior condition. If you move, travel, or lose your job, your healthcare coverage goes with you.
• Uniform, comprehensive coverage, including prescription drugs, dental, vision, and long-term care, with one single-standard of care for everyone. No high-deductible policies with limited benefits or lifetime caps on care.
• Choice of health providers. The government collects the money now spent on healthcare and allocates the necessary funds to our mostly private system of caregivers, hospitals, and clinics.
• Promotes prevention, primary care, and public health. Removing financial barriers ensures consumers can get care when they need it.
• Controls costs. No more administrative waste lost to insurance industry paperwork and profits. The government negotiates with hospitals and drug companies to get the best price.
• The only fair approach. Everybody pays into the system—employers, workers, consumers—so quality care remains affordable and accessible.
• Quality care and public oversight and accountability. Professional caregivers can deliver appropriate care based on individual patient needs.
• Puts you in control of your health. You and your caregiver make the decisions about what is best for your health, not the insurance companies.

Our Healthcare system is collapsing in cost, access, and quality

• Fewer employers offer health coverage.
• Medical bills make up 62% of personal bankruptcies; nearly 80% who went broke from healthcare bills had insurance.
• Insurance premiums jumped 50% the past seven years; 60% of Americans live in states where premiums consume at least a fifth of their income.
• 50 million Americans are uninsured; 29 million are under insured — an increase of 80% since 2003. We’re number one? Not on your life.
• The U.S. ranks last among 19 industrialized nations in preventable deaths and 41st in the world in death rates for child bearing women.
• 80% of U.S. counties trail in life expectancy compared to other nations.
• Sicker adults in the U.S. are far more likely to be unable to pay medical bills, have trouble getting after hour care, and postpone needed medical care compared to similar countries.
• Yet, we spend twice as much as other countries on health care. Administrative costs are 30 to 70 times higher than other industrialized nations. The difference? All the other countries have a single-payer or national healthcare system.

What You Can Do:

• Join with the Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses United in the Maine Healthcare is Human Right Campaign! For more information: MSNA@nnoc.net.

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Maine State Nurses Association
National Nurses Organizing Committee
Nationa Nurses United
23 Water Street, Suite 301
Bangor, ME 04401
T. 207.622.1057
F. 207.623.4072
Email | www.MaineNurse.org