GREEN PARTY: Nader Discusses Health Reform Positions
Before being turned away from Tuesday's presidential debate in Boston, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader stopped in Worcester, Mass., and spoke with the Worcester Telegram & Gazette about his plans for health care reform. Nader said that he wants a "universal and federally funded private delivery health care system paid for with a 3.5% payroll tax and a fee of one-fourth of 1% on stock transactions." Nader said that a public-payer system would "save hundreds of millions of dollars in administrative costs and billing fraud" and that "the stock-transaction fee would generate $120 billion." Nader added that "to be truly cost-effective," a health care system should focus on prevention "to keep people out of the hospital and surgery rooms." Nader also indicated that even if he lost the election, he would continue his effort of bolstering the Green Party, which he said has "the organization and the leadership to build for the future," the Telegram & Gazette reports. The post-election Green Party will "act as a public interest watchdog," by challenging "corporate irresponsibility and pushing for publicly financed campaigns," he said (Melady, Worcester Telegram & Gazette, 10/4).
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