FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, November 6, 2008
PRESS CONTACT: Candace Perry, 1-877-700-8070, info@capecare.info

Overwhelming Support for Health Care as a Human Right

In an election that brought an exceedingly high voter turnout in Massachusetts, a question supporting single payer health care as a human right and opposing individual mandates passed by landslide margins in all three Cape legislative districts where it appeared on the ballot. This ballot initiative was sponsored by Mass-Care, the state wide advocacy group for single payer health care.

The ballot queston was vigorously supported on Cape Cod and the islands by the Cape Care Coalition, the citizen organization working to create a community-owned health care plan for Cape Cod. Voters in the districts of First Barnstable; Fourth Barnstable; and Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket had the initiative on their ballots. The three districts include both islands and all or part of the Cape towns of Brewster, Dennis, Yarmouth, Chatham, Eastham, Harwich, Orleans, Provincetown, Orleans, Wellfleet, and Falmouth.

Nearly 71% of the 60,000 voters in the three Cape districts approved the question, which also passed overwhelmingly in the seven other districts around the state where it was put to a vote, with margins of between 65% and 80%.

The question read as follows:

Shall the representative from this district be instructed (1) to support legislation that would establish health care as a human right regardless of age, state of health or employment status, by creating a single payer health insurance system that is comprehensive, cost effective, and publicly provided to all residents of Massachusetts, and (2) to oppose any laws penalizing the uninsured for failing to obtain health insurance.

The strong support for this measure confirms previous opinion polls showing two thirds of the public supports such an approach. In April 2008, a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that 59% of U.S. physicians support national health insurance.

For more information on the ballot initiative and the Cape Care Coalition, go to www.capecare.info, email info@capecare.info, or call toll free, 1-877-700-8070.