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I decided to run for office because of insurance corporation
abuse which I deal with in my workers compensation cases. I see
insurance corporations deny and delay medical care and monetary
benefits to my clients who have been injured on the job. Insurance
corporations were originally created to serve people by pooling
resources and using those pooled resources to provide prompt
help when people are injured on the job. But now their corporate
purpose is to make money. For an insurance corporations it is
irrelevant that denial or delay of benefits and medical treatment
will affect a person's recovery or result in a family losing
its home. Medical treatment should be based on patient need,
not corporate greed.
I am an attorney who has represented people for 25 years.
With the exception of a few not-for-profit corporations, I have
never represented corporations. Although I've handled many different
kinds of cases, mostly I represent disabled people. Some were
hurt on the job, some had disabilities they were born with, some
have had multiple injuries, others developed problems where the
cause is uncertain. These distinctions often determine whether
or not my clients get medical treatment. This system doesn't
work. I believe the People of New York should get medical
treatment if they NEED it, not based on whether an insurance
company is willing to pay for it. Only the Green Party is fighting
for universal health care.
Stanley Aronowitz, the Green Party Candidate for Governor,
says, "Health care must be a right, not a source of profit.
We need to scrap the Managed Care system and return to that movement
derailed by Bill and Hillary Clinton back in 1993 - Single Payer,
or National Health Insurance (NHI). By eliminating the insane
duplication of the current system, by removing competition and
the profit motive, and by making health care the responsibility
of democratically elected institutions instead of private corporations,
we can reduce costs while providing universal access."
A Green approach to health care doesn't just look at the business
of medicine in the need to improve our health. We also need to
pull away from the web that the corporate spider has woven for
us. We should not make all of our life decisions by choosing
the options that Corporate America offers us. Health is not in
a pill, even if TV advertisements lure us into the notion that
their product will improve our health. Our Lieutenant Governor
Candidate, Dr. Jennifer Daniels, says, "Much of the technology
that Americans rely on to improve their health has been damaging
their health and their pocketbooks. Every New York citizen should
have clean air, healthy water and good food." Good health
requires access to preventive and basic medical services, but
it also requires a healthier diet, safer workplaces, too. There
aren't particularly good commodities for corporations to market
and sell. We don't have to buy everything just because it's out
there.
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