League of Women Voters of Ohio Education Fund
Hamilton County, OH March 2, 2004 Election
	Greg Harris Answers Questions Candidate for United States Representative; District 1; Democratic Party

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of Ohio and asked of all candidates for this office.

Read the answers from all candidates.

Questions & Answers

1. What are your qualifications for office?

My professional background includes teaching and extensive work in community development. After teaching for six years at Miami University, where I also earned my PhD, I served as Program Manager for an inner-city youth development and apprenticeship program called Public Allies/Americorps. I was then hired as Executive Director of a regional public policy and advocacy organization called Citizens for Civic Renewal (CCR), founded by former Ohio Governor John Gilligan. During my tenure, CCR worked with citizens and public officials to identify solutions to some of the more pressing problems facing the region, including school equity, campaign finance reform, urban sprawl, and poverty.

I currently work as a consultant to non-profit agencies in areas of project development and grant writing, and have done communications work for local political campaigns.

Due to my substantial work in the advocacy field, I have a strong grasp of effective public policy ("best practices") that can be applied at the federal level in response to some of the more pressing issues facing our region.

2. How would you implement your top priority?

Healthcare Reform:

Our nation currently provides healthcare for the elderly (Medicare) and the poor (Medicaid), but inexcusably allows over 44 million people, most of whom are members of working families, to fall through the cracks.

According to the Connecticut Coalition for Universal Healthcare, "The United States is the only industrialized country in the world in which health care is not a right of citizenship. As a result the United States has the worst health care statistics in the industrialized world. We rank 18th in longevity, 16th in infant mortality, and around 67th in immunizations. All because our citizens can't access health care due to money."

I support the single payer plan endorsed by the 8,000 physicians from the American Medical Organization (AMA). The plan "would save at least $200 billion annually by eliminating the high overhead and profits of the private, investor-owned insurance industry and reducing spending for marketing and other satellite services. Administrative savings would fully offset the costs of covering the uninsured as well as giving full prescription drug coverage to all Americans."

Universal health coverage plan will pay for itself by removing the expensive middleman (e.g. the insurance companies), increasing preventative care and decreasing administrative costs.

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2003/august/doctors_call_for_nat.php

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