The Green Party will present a public forum on the need for a Single-Payer

health care funding system on Friday, July 24 from 3:30-4:30pm as part of their 2009 Annual National Meeting in Durham, North Carolina. The forum, which is free and open to the public, will take place in the Miller-Morgan Building on the North Carolina Central University Campus. The building is located on Nelson Street, and is accessible from Fayetteville Street.

QUOTES FROM FORUM PRESENTERS:

"Making a decision about the clear benefits of Single Payer is very simple when we put the health of our family and neighbors at the center. Here in the Triangle the shadow of Blue Cross & Blue Shield which employs nearly 5,000 residents and claims over 3.5 million "participants" looms so strong over our representatives at the State House, that consideration of what would truly be the best for all of the state's residents is clouded at best. We have to make the voices of the millions who know and live the need for real reform heard over the rhetoric and "spin" of well paid lobbyists and public relations specialists." George Friday, Forum Moderator and Co-Chair, North Carolina Green Party

"Nearly every industrialized country of the world, and some countries whose economies may be described as "developing" or "emerging", recognize the right to health care by funding quality, affordable health care through a single, national funding source and guaranteeing access to health care by law. The US, on the other hand, has the highest per capita health care expenditure in the world, and it significantly lags behind other Western countries in health care quality (according to the World Health Organization) and in major indicators of health, such as life expectancy and infant mortality. Continued reliance on any form of employer-based private health insurance will perpetuate the low quality and the poor outcomes of our health care system regardless of the empty promises of the insurance industry and corporate health care institutions." Dr. Jonathan Kotch, Board President of Health Care for All NC and senior faculty member at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health

"President Obama says that he wants to bring down health care costs and expand coverage for all Americans. Yet health insurance legislation recently proposed by Congress will only increase costs by adding more layers of bureaucracy while leaving large numbers of Americans uninsured. The plain truth is that for-profit health insurance and its administratively wasteful smorgasbord of plans must go. Single payer is the only plan that will provide all Americans with health insurance while significantly reducing costs." Dr. Justine McCabe, Co-Chair, GPUS International Committee, former Co-Chair, Green Party of CT, and Ph.D. alumna of Duke University

Reporters will have an opportunity at 3pm to meet and interview the forum speakers in advance of the event.

For more information about the event and speakers, see here.


National meeting web page.


Media credentialing page for the meeting.


Single Payer Campaign Page.