NAFTA is backdoor deregulation; lowers FDA standards
Perhaps the greatest dangers from NAFTA are contained in the food hygiene standards. NAFTA’s lax standards undermine existing US health and environmental standards. Rather than adopt the highest possible food hygiene levels, NAFTA adopts standards
developed by something called Codex.
The problem with Codex, a United Nations organization, is that they rely heavily upon the expertise of executives from the very industries that are to be regulated.
A comparison of the Codex standards with
standards of the FDA reveals the recklessness of US negotiators in adopting those standards. For example, the Codex allows ten times more DDT on carrots than the FDA.
The Codex is a quick and easy way to get around US hygiene standards. [Unethical
companies will] use the exceptions provided by the trade agreement to enter the US market with foods that would never meet the US hygiene standards. NAFTA is a back-door deregulation of US health and environmental standards.
Source: Save Your Job, Save Our Country, p. 82-3
Jan 1, 1993
Expand Medicare to cover all Americans
Perot has stated in a rather straightforward fashion that he favors:
Curbing entitlement payments to the affluent;
and implementation of some sort of a comprehensive health care plan-one that would be akin to Medicare but for all Americans, not just the needy.
Source: Strong-Man Politics, by George Grant, p. 88
Nov 7, 1992
Attack AIDS at every level: more education, more research
We’ve been talking about health-care reform since Truman was President. The need to act has been given a new and terrible urgency by the deadly AIDS epidemic that has already taken such a tragic toll.
This plague must be attacked at every level: education, prevention, and accelerated research.
Source: United We Stand, by Ross Perot, p. 87-89
Jul 2, 1992
Short term: cost containment & focus on prevention
The problem with our health care system is structural. Health care needs to be reformed. The political arena is the last place to expect a rational system to be developed. The political system, after all, is ingeniously constructed to allow different
groups to push their own interests in the hope that the compromises that result will benefit the whole nation. That has worked fine in some areas. It hasn’t worked in reforming a public/private relationship as loaded with pitfalls and potential profit as
our health-care system.
I suggest that we should adopt both short-term and long-term strategies. In the short term, a cost containment and prevention program should be developed immediately. Various health-care experts and representatives of affected
groups should have a series of work sessions with government officials. A plan should be put into effect as quickly as possible. In the longer term, [we should have] comprehensive national health-care reform based on a public-private partnership.
Source: United We Stand, by Ross Perot, p. 89
Jul 2, 1992
Long term: comprehensive national health policy
In the longer term, comprehensive national health-care reform based on a public-private partnership should involve the following:
Establishing a national health board as an independent federal agency to oversee cost containment and comprehensive
health-care reform efforts
Setting a national health policy
Encouraging problem solving by everyone involved
Reaching a consensus on a set of principles for reform
Determining a basic benefit package for universal coverage and appropriate tax
treatment of health benefits
Asking states to submit comprehensive health-care reform proposals that meet agreed-upon principles and cost-containment targets
Changing federal rules to allow states the necessary flexibility to conduct pilot programs
It is only a failure of leadership that has kept us from solving this problem. As the problems mount, we begin to give in to the notion that nothing can be done. That’s baloney. Our health care and medical professionals are the best in the world.
Source: United We Stand, by Ross Perot, p. 89-90
Jul 2, 1992
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