Point Number Three: Health Care for ALL

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POINT 3: Health Care for All. North Carolina should provide health insurance and prescription drug coverage for all its citizens while funding public health programs to treat social diseases that plague black and poor communities including HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, domestic violence, mental illness, diabetes, and obesity.

STELLA ADAMS: Because Black people and other poor people have always died sooner, gotten no or little health care, and have always had to take care of each other, and Because the national health system is a mess, We have called for Health Care for All. Here is Dr. Fred McQueen, Chair of our NAACP Health Committee and Thea Monet, Director of the NC Black Medical Society:

DR. FRED McQUEEN: DID YOU KNOW that Health care is a fundamental right of all human beings?

DID you know North Carolina has over 1.3 million people uninsured, with Blacks having a much higher rate of serious disease than Whites?

Did you know that NC has an infant mortality rate for blacks is more than twice that of whites?

Did you know that Blacks in NC have a 1/3rd higher probability of having a serious stroke than whites?

THEA MONET:

THEREFORE WE DEMAND the legislature Expand our successful Children’s Health Insurance Program so every parent in North Carolina can get affordable health coverage for their children.

We DEMAND the legislature establish a state health insurance “high risk pool” so people with serious health conditions can buy affordable health coverage.

We Demand that health insurance companies stop discriminating against people with mental illness and expand access to mental health services by enacting a “mental health parity” law.

We Demand the legislature set up an affordable health insurance program for workers who are laid off or fired.

We demand that N.C. follow California’s lead and establish standards that bring about a substantial decrease in emissions of carbon dioxide and associated pollutants, and encourage international cooperation in stopping climate change that affects Black people the most.