In the same debate where he wasn's sure if he supported abortion rights, Rudy Giuliani managed to insult 23 million Americans, as well American women, Americans of color, and the entire working- and middle-class of this country. Learn how below--and about a new report showing that one-quarter of American kids can't get health care. But there’s good news: Maine nurses are sponsoring a crucial patient safety bill, evidence of the powerful nurse-patient coalitions already beginning to improve our broken healthcare system.
Brought to you by the National Nurses Organizing Committee as we organize to make 2007 the Year of GUARANTEED Healthcare.
Rudy does not have a specific healthcare plan, but in last night’s Republican party debate, he proved that he is either a liar or a moron on the subject:
We're a country that has the greatest health care system in the world. It's flawed, it needs to be fixed, but we should fix it from our strengths. We shouldn't turn it into socialized medicine.
Let’s look at that in context of a new report that came out yesterday
It's estimated that 9 million children are completely uninsured. But the new study says 11.5 million more kids end up without medical care for part of the year. And another 3 million can't get a ride to the doctor. That's more than 23 million children.
23 million kids don’t have healthcare? There is no other developed nation in the world that comes close to this. We are sentencing these kids to suffering, disease, and early death—and Rudy does not give a darn. That’s leadership?
It’s not just Rudy of course. Of the Presidential candidates, only Mitt Romney and John Edwards have proposed health care plans. Mitt’s will make things much worse, and Edwards’ is a mix of good and bad, but at least he put something out there.
But only Rudy’s coming out and saying that America has the best health care in the world. His remarks insult kids, as well as women, who have a huge medical care gap in this country, and people of color, who do as well.
We have the best healthcare system...for the very wealthy who do not have to worry about the unaffordablity of care. Overall, though, as the World Health Organization points out, we have the world’s 37th-best healthcare system. The U.S. is behind developing countries such as Cyprus and Chile.
So Rudy’s just plain wrong.
Then he goes to the second big lie: the specter of socialized medicine. Presumably he’s talking about scary countries like France, England, and Canada—who rank #1, #18, and #30 on the list. This means fewer infants die and the population lives longer and healthier.
What Rudy’s really doing is trying to protect insurance and pharmaceutical industry profits with these scare-mongering techniques. Maybe it’s because he was paid millions of dollars by the Pharmaceutical Manurfacturers?
Rudy’s immoral lies to the contrary, the movement for guaranteed health care is gaining steam across the country. The latest? Nurses in Maine are pushing for a key patient safety reform that will save the lives of hundreds of people in Maine hospitals and emergency rooms. Go MSNA!
But it’s not going to happen without your help. If you want to join the fight for guaranteed healthcare (with a "Medicare for All" or SinglePayer financing), sign up with GuaranteedHealthcare.org, a project of the National Nurses Organizing Committee. You can help the fight by sharing your story about surviving the healthcare industry here.