In 2004 there were close to 77,000 uninsured Delawareans. In 2006 that number has grown to over 97,000 We rank near the top in cancer deaths and our infant mortality rate is the highest in the nation. We have the seventh highest median income in the country but our lost jobs are being replaced by jobs paying 43% less. Replacing a system that wastes approximately $1 billion dollars per year of taxpayer money cannot be avoided by our elected leaders any longer. The question is no longer when but how.

I will work to introduce and pass Universal Health Care coverage for all Delawareans from cradle to grave with a single payer system.

This plan will offer comprehensive health care coverage from conception to death without any supplemental coverage or out-of-pocket expense. It will eliminate the multi-payer broker system that currently wastes approximately 40 percent of total funds used for paperwork, profits, advertising and lobbying.

Coverage will include but not be limited to doctors, specialists, pharmaceuticals, dental care, mental health care and long term care. It will leave health care decisions to physicians, dentists and other professional health care staff. It will eliminate annual double-digit increases in health care costs, huge debts caused by catastrophic illness and the debilitating effect of chronic stress caused by the current health care crises.

The economic consequences of implementing universal health coverage would be enormously beneficial to our state and all of its citizens. Money saved under this system could be used to reinvigorate our stagnant economy, offer relief to struggling small businesses, enable creation of better paying jobs, fund higher wages for existing jobs and offer a fiscal alternative to corporations that want to outsource jobs. It would also attract new corporations and businesses to Delaware who would want to take advantage of the cost savings and obvious economic benefits.

Delaware can once again claim the title of the “First State”: the first state to put the interests of its people over the interests of the special interest lobbies, the first state to provide full access to health care for its people.