April, 21 2009, 07:52am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Laura Bonham, Communications Coordinator, Laura@pdamerica.org,
(435) 336-2123
Tim Carpenter, National Director, Tim@pdamerica.org, (413)-320-2015
PDA Forum in Santa Barbara Supports Single-Payer Healthcare
SANTA BARBARA, Calif.
Progressive Democrats of America will hold a Healthcare NOT Warfare Forum
on Thursday, April 23, at the Unitarian Society Social Hall beginning
at 5:30 p.m., in support of HR 676 by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) that
would set up a single-payer healthcare system in the U.S.
PDA's
executive director, Tim Carpenter, board chair Mimi Kennedy and
southern California state coordinator Dr. Bill Honigman will be
featured at the event, which is co-sponsored by the California Nurses
Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.
Carpenter
notes that experience in other countries has shown that single-payer is
the only system that can provide universal coverage while lowering
costs, and it would create an estimated 2.6 million jobs in healthcare
and related industries in the U.S.
Other
reform plans under consideration in Congress and the Obama
administration are basically expansions of the current system of
private health insurance, Carpenter said, "but healthcare corporations
exist to make profits for their shareholders, not to provide
healthcare. As long as they are part of the equation, real reform will
elude us."
"PDA remains committed to the
single-payer solution, and we will continue to push for it inside and
outside the beltway," said Carpenter.
The
Santa Barbara forum is one of several PDA-sponsored events in
California this week, leading up to the state Democratic Party's annual
convention, which will begin April 25.
Progressive Democrats of America was founded in 2004 to transform the Democratic Party and U.S. politics by working inside and outside of the party by working to elect empowered progressives and by building the progressive movement in solidarity with with peace, justice, civil rights, environmental, and other reform efforts. For more information about PDA, please see PDAmerica.org.
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