9th Congressional District Green party candidates sound off on health care

A retired Chicago peace activist will take on an Evanston schoolteacher in the Feb. 2 Green party primary for the 9th Congressional District.

Green party candidates Morris Shanfield of Chicago and Simon Ribeiro of Evanston are vying for a chance to snatch the seat from incumbent Democrat Jan Schakowsky of Evanston in November. Both candidates have unsuccessfully tried to unseat Schakowsky in previous general elections.

Shanfield, 76, a retired journalist who twice marched with Martin Luther King Jr., says he is not running to get elected, but rather to promote Green party ideals. His campaign platform focuses on creating jobs and getting the country out of the current financial crisis, ending ongoing U.S. wars and saving the biosphere.

Shanfield proposes mobilizing the country's unemployed in a green revolution akin to late U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's World War II industrial mobilization policies. He suggests creating a renewable jobs/industrial complex focusing on green initiatives, "to have a sound economy based on something even more valuable than gold - sustainable energy programs."

Shanfield said rail is the future of transportation and the country should follow billionaire businessman Warren Buffet's example and invest in rail and electronic parts.

Both candidates agree that the government should pull U.S. troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan immediately.

Ribeiro, 28, an Evanston schoolteacher and swim instructor, says his top campaign issues are getting universal health care coverage for all Americans, advocating for a national central bank and currency while moving away from the current Federal Reserve system, and settling the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"I do understand that there are legitimate concerns about universal health care in other countries, but I think we can get it right in this country," Ribeiro said.

Ribeiro said, if elected, he would try to garner support for a single-payer health care system in Congress. "I'm very realistic and I know it's a huge uphill battle," he said.

Shanfield also favors a public option health insurance plan for all. He said the present health care system is hemorrhaging because of the 30 percent cut private health insurance companies take off the top of monthly premiums "for administrative costs, banker-style executive bonuses, and profits."

Compared to that, Medicare administrative costs are only 3 percent, he said.

"Public option costs must be paid for principally by increased taxes on corporations and on the rich, not on working and middle-class families," Shanfield said.

Shanfield and Ribeiro do not support using federal tax money to fund abortions.

Ribeiro said he is willing to compromise on that issue if it threatens derailing an agreement on a universal health care plan in Congress. Shanfield suggests allowing women to choose an insurance rider covering abortion and cover it out of their own pockets.