January, 18 2017, 12:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Clare Fauke, Communications Specialist,,clare@pnhp.org
Doctors Who Support 'Medicare for All' Among Those Opposing Price as HHS Secretary
WASHINGTON
More than 2,000 physicians and medical students who oppose the nomination of Rep. Tom Price to head the Department of Health and Human Services -- and who support the creation of a single-payer national health program to cover all Americans -- are among the signers of petitions being presented this morning to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee calling upon the committee to reject President-elect Donald Trump's nominee.
Their statement, which appears below, concludes as follows: "Price's health policy prescriptions would move our nation's health care system in the wrong direction, endangering the health of tens of millions. These policies would further obstruct access to care and concentrate even more power in the hands of corporate interests. What America needs, now more than ever, is a single-payer national health program -- an improved Medicare for all."
In a related statement, Dr. Carol Paris, president of Physicians for a National Health Program, said the following today: "Physicians for a National Health Program urges the members of the Senate HELP committee to reject the nomination of Rep. Tom Price for secretary of health and human services. A vote for Tom Price is a vote against 30 million Americans who will lose their health insurance. It is a vote against Medicare. It is a vote against Medicaid. It is a vote to sharply reduce Americans' access to health care, when in fact we urgently need to expand it to all."
The text of the petition -- signed by 2,010 medical professionals in 48 states and the District of Columbia -- turned in to the Senate HELP committee this morning reads as follows:
An Open Letter from Physicians Regarding the Nomination of Tom Price
We urge the Senate to reject the nomination of Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) as head of the Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Price's record indicates that his confirmation as Secretary would be disastrous for patients, doctors, and all who care about the health of the American people.
* As a member of Congress, Price introduced the Empowering Patients First Act as a replacement for the Affordable Care Act. That bill relies on discredited policies such as high-risk pools, individual tax credits, and allowing insurers to sell bare-bones policies. If signed into law, it would eliminate coverage for millions of Americans; benefit young healthy males at the expense of women, and the old, sick and poor; and offer the wealthy substantial new tax breaks.
* Together with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Price has pushed to replace Medicare with a "premium support" (i.e. voucher) program that would threaten traditional Medicare, increase out-of-pocket costs for seniors, and bolster the profits of the private insurance and financial services industries.
* Price, along with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services nominee Seema Verma, has supported converting Medicaid into a block grant program. This would allow states free reign to implement cruel Medicaid cutbacks and policies that compromise the health of their poorest residents. (Verma's health savings accounts in Indiana are a prime example.)
* Price has been hostile to family planning, and has endorsed policies that would place millions of women at risk. His extreme views include opposition to abortion under almost all circumstances, a preference for "religious freedom" over access to contraception, and an obsession with eliminating federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
* Price has a long history of opposition to LGBT rights. As HHS secretary, he may decline to enforce nondiscrimination provisions of existing laws. Furthermore, his preferred Medicaid policies would restrict access to HIV/AIDS treatment for the most vulnerable patients.
Price's health policy prescriptions would move our nation's health care system in the wrong direction, endangering the health of tens of millions. These policies would further obstruct access to care and concentrate even more power in the hands of corporate interests. What America needs, now more than ever, is a single-payer national health program -- an improved Medicare for all.
Physicians for a National Health Program is a single issue organization advocating a universal, comprehensive single-payer national health program. PNHP has more than 21,000 members and chapters across the United States.
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"The Mexican government is both wise and on solid ground in refusing to allow its people to participate in the experiment that the U.S. government is seeking to impose."
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Friends of the Earth U.S. on Monday released a brief backing Mexico's ban on genetically modified corn for human consumption, which the green group recently submitted to a dispute settlement panel charged with considering the U.S. government's challenge to the policy.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced plans to phase out the herbicide glyphosate as well as genetically modified (GM) or genetically engineered (GE) corn in 2020. Last year he issued an updated decree making clear the ban does not apply to corn imports for livestock feed and industrial use. Still, the Biden administration objected and, after fruitless formal negotiations, requested the panel under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
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The brief explains that "since the commercial introduction of GE corn in 1996 and event-specific approvals in the 1990s and 2000s, dramatic changes have occurred in corn production systems. There has been an approximate four-fold increase in the number of toxins and pesticides applied on the average hectare of contemporary GE industrial corn compared to the early 1990s. Unfortunately, this upward trend is bound to continue, and may accelerate."
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"The U.S. is, in effect, asking Mexico to trust the completeness and accuracy of the initial GE corn safety assessments carried out 15 to 30 years ago by the companies working to bring GE corn events to market," the document says. "The Mexican government is both wise and on solid ground in refusing to allow its people to participate in the experiment that the U.S. government is seeking to impose on Mexico."
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His submission notes that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration "does not require a GE plant developer to do anything prior to marketing its GE crop or food derived from it. Instead, FDA operates what it calls a voluntary consultation program that is designed to enhance consumer confidence and speed GE crops to market."
"When governmental review is optional; and even when it's conducted, starts and ends with the regulated company's safety assurance—what's the point?" Freese asked. "Clearly, it's the PR value of a governmental rubber stamp."
"The Mexican government's prohibition of GM corn for tortillas and other masa corn products is fully justified," he asserted. "The U.S. government's case against Mexico has no more scientific merit than its sham GMO regulatory regime, and should be rejected by the USMCA dispute resolution panel."
In a Common Dreams opinion piece last week, Ernesto Hernández-López, a law professor at Chapman University in California, pointed out that Mexico's recent submission to the panel also "offers scientific proof and lots of it," including "over 150 scientific studies, referred to in peer-review journals, systemic research reviews, and more."
"Mexico incorporates perspectives from toxicology, pediatrics, plant biology, hematology, epidemiology, public health, and data mining, to name a few," he wrote. "This clearly and loudly responds to American persistence. The practical result: American leaders cannot claim there is no science supporting the decree. They may disagree with or dislike the findings, but there is proof."
The Biden administration's effort to quash the Mexican policy notably comes despite the lack of impact on trade. While implementing its ban last year, "Mexico also made its largest corn purchase from the U.S., 15.3 million metric tons," National Geographicreported last month.
Kenneth Smith Ramos, former Mexican chief negotiator for the USMCA, told the outlet that "right now, it may not have a big economic impact because what Mexico is using to produce flour, cornmeal, and tortillas is a very small percentage of their overall imports; but that does not mean the U.S. is not concerned with this being the tip of the iceberg."
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Watch Matt Lee ask StateSpox about the passing of the UN ceasefire resolution. Basically the US position is it makes no difference and Miller calls 🇷🇺/🇨🇳 veto cynical.
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Lee: What’s the point of the UN? pic.twitter.com/FibaSKWjuh
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