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The Right to Health Care in North Carolina.
NC Representative Verla Insko has introduced legislation to ensure appropriate health care on a regular basis to all North Carolinians by the end of 2005, entitled "The Right to Health Care". Seventy-two health professional and community groups have endorsed the bill, and have launched a statewide campaign for its passage.
The North Carolina Committee to Defend Health Care (NC-CDHC), led by Durham physician Dr. Carol Kirschenbaum, has worked for the last two years with Representative Insko and supporters across the state to promote the bill. Supporters also released new results from the Carolina Poll showing that North Carolinians of all political stripes overwhelmingly support government action to ensure that all state residents have access to adequate health care.
"We have hospitals in North Carolina that rank among the very best in the world, yet 30% of North Carolinians can't afford to have a major illness," said Dr. Kirschenbaum. "Right now many North Carolinians can only 'window shop' when it comes to basic health care needs, and are left destitute whey they get sick" she continued.
"The U.S. is the only industrialized country in the world without some system of universal health care," said Representative Insko. This is unconscienable given that 64% of the nation's health care expenses are already paid out of the public purse, which includes taxes paid in by the uninsured (who are mostly employed). "With the enactment of this legislation, North Carolina will lead the nation in ending this injustice, and ensure that, at least here in the Tar Heel state, everyone can get quality care," she continued.
A recent poll, conducted by School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC, showed that 83.1% of North Carolinians "agree that the State Legislature should make a plan so that all NC Residents can get decent health care on a regular basis." Support is non-partisan: 73% of Republicans polled either "strongly agree or agree," and 81% of Democrats; 86% of those not identifying as either party strongly agree or agree. The 652 North Carolinians responded to the poll which was conducted during the spring of 2000.
The bill, HB 1098, will require the State Legislature to put a question on the statewide ballot at the next general election in 2002, asking the voters to amend the state Constitution to make health care a right, as education has been for over 100 years. If voters approve the measure, it would then require the Legislature to implement a plan to ensure appropriate health care on a regular basis for all state residents by a deadline of 2005.
Other state Representatives co-sponsoring the bill include Representatives Adams/Guilford, Alexander/Mecklenburg, Wright/Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover and Pender, Luebke/Durham and Wainwright/Craven, Jones, Lenoir and Pamlico. Supporters at the Capitol press conference today said they anticipate other legislators joining the campaign, now that the bill has been introduced.
Groups endorsing the bill range from statewide health professional associations, to medical student groups, to labor, church and citizen organizations. They include the NC Pediatric Society, NC Public Health Association, NC Nurses Association, NC College of Emergency Physicians, American Medical Students Association at UNC-Chapel Hill and Wake Forest University Schools of Medicine, NC Council of Churches, North Carolina State AFL-CIO, and NC American Association of Retired Persons (NC-AARP), among many others.
More informationon the legislation and the campaign to pass it can be found CLICK HERE NOW
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