NAACP calls for public option

Thursday, November 05, 2009

NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous (AP image)

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local/state

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous came to Raleigh Thursday morning to make a call for a public option in health care legislation currently being debated in Congress.

A public option would be a government run program that would give people another choice besides private health insurance plans - something that has drawn intense opposition from conservative groups and insurance companies.

But Jealous says meaningful health care reform can't be achieved without a strong public option that would help bring insurance prices down.

“Most black people know someone who has died due to the ineffective health care policy,” said Jealous. "We need heath care reform that provides affordable health insurance to all Americans and that can’t be done without a strong public option.”

North Carolina NAACP leaders echo that sentiment.

"It is a matter of life and death," offered NAACP North Carolina State Conference President William J. Barber II. "In the past decade, 880,000 African Americans died because they lacked health insurance."