Press release:
Nate McMurray, Democrat running in the Special Election in Western NY’s 27th District, today released his proposal for protecting and expanding health care for seniors, working families, rural communities and small businesses.
With a growing rural doctor shortage and many rural hospitals struggling, the high cost of health care for small businesses, entrepreneurs and so-called “gig workers,” nearly 30 million people still uninsured, and Trump’s new attack on Medicare, McMurray said the time for action is now.
“Insurance companies and big pharma are choking our economy, making people sick and driving families into bankruptcy," McMurray said. “The cost of insurance is up, deductibles are up, and co-pays are up, and the CEOs of drug companies and insurance companies are taking home millions.
"Meanwhile, rural hospitals can’t find doctors, and Trump is getting ready to cut Medicare. The system we have isn’t working for too many people, and we need to change.”
McMurray put a particular focus on Medicare, which provides healthcare to America’s seniors.
“Medicare is one of the great successes of our nation," McMurray said. "Before Medicare, half of all seniors couldn’t afford health insurance, now everyone is covered because taxpayers and employers put money into the system with every paycheck.
"How dare Trump and his allies threaten to cut benefits. Our seniors paid for those benefits all their lives, and as Congressman, I’m never going to let Washington break that promise."
McMurray slammed Washington’s approach to health care in general, and called out Congress members for taking corporate PAC money from the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, while protecting their profits, over helping families and small businesses.
“It’s corrupt,” McMurray said. “Big pharma pushes cash to Congress members like they pushed opioids into our communities. The politicians they buy should be protecting us but they don’t, so we need to cure this sickness by electing people who will do the job.”
McMurray’s 4 Point Healthcare Platform includes:
1.) Supporting rural hospitals by expanding debt forgiveness programs for medical professionals and doctors that work in rural hospitals and clinic and increasing funding for rural hospitals;
2.) Creating a single-payer health care system while protecting patients’ rights to choose their doctors;
3.) Blocking Trump’s Medicare cuts;
4.) Battling the opioid epidemic by reimbursing local hospitals and clinics for overdose treatment, and training all first responders in usage of Naloxone to save overdose victims’ lives.
“Medical costs help cause two-thirds of all bankruptcies, and the average cost for small business for family coverage is over $20,000 per employee," McMurray said. "How many more small businesses have to go under and how many more families have to go bankrupt before we are willing to change? It’s time to break free and give Americans the health care they deserve."
Fact Check: According to the National Institute of Health, medical costs do not cause "two-thirds of all bankruptcies." The report states: " ... the magnitude of the bankruptcy effect is much smaller than previously thought: we estimate that hospitalizations cause only 4 percent of personal bankruptcies among nonelderly U.S. adults, which is an order of magnitude smaller than the previous estimates described above.
