158 Grandview Lane
Mahwah, NJ 07430
August 11, 2009
Single Payer Health Care Needed
Listening to all the talk about how government health care is lousy, reminds me how my
son was born with a paralyzed arm because of traditional American health care. A
British houseguest told me of superior treatment his family received in England. I had
my hernia surgery performed in Canada. Even though I was not a Canadian, it was better
and less costly than treatment here. My father went with me to repair a botched hernia
operation he got in the good old USA. One of my friends became a Canadian citizen
because he couldn’t afford to be treated here. The executive vice president of my
employer’s Canadian division spoke highly of Canadian health care. He said health care
providers who want higher fees besmirch it. My Austrian born friend, got sick while
visiting relatives there. She was treated satisfactorily at no charge.
Single Payer health care is the only true reform for our broken system. It is a national
system in which a single public or quasi-public agency organizes health financing, but
delivery of care remains largely private. Despite spending more than twice as much as the
rest of the industrialized nations, the United States performs poorly in life expectancy,
infant mortality and immunization. Other advanced nations provide comprehensive
coverage to their populations while the U.S. leaves 46 million completely uninsured and
millions more inadequately covered.
We get less for more money because of our patchwork of for-profit players. Private
insurers waste health dollars on things that have nothing to do with care: overhead,
underwriting, billing, sales and marketing departments, huge profits, and exorbitant
executive pay. Doctors and hospitals must keep costly administrative staffs to deal with
the buracracy. Needless administration consumes one-third of American health dollars.
Single-payer financing is the only way to recapture this wasted money. More than $350
billion can be saved, enough to provide comprehensive coverage for everyone without
paying any more than we already do.
Under a single-payer system, all Americans would be covered for all medically necessary
services. Patients would retain free choice of doctor and hospital, and doctors would
regain autonomy over patient care.
Physicians would be paid fee-for-service according to a negotiated formulary or receive
salary from a hospital or nonprofit HMO / group practice. Hospitals would receive a
global budget for operating expenses. Health facilities and expensive equipment
purchases would be managed by regional health planning boards.
Eliminating private insurers and recapturing their administrative waste would finance a
single-payer system. Modest new taxes would replace premiums and out-of-pocket
payments currently paid by individuals and business. Costs would be controlled through
negotiated fees, global budgeting and bulk purchasing.
The only rational alternative to Health Care. Is promoted by Bernie Sanders in the Senate
and john Conyers in the house HR 676. But this will not have a chance against the tens
of millions of dollars being spent by the insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, and
health-care profiteers unless you insist on support for some version of health care for all
(Single Payer).
Sidney J. Goodman
(201) 327-5158