Single-Payer Health Plan Best

BRADENTON (By Robert Phillipoff, Bradenton Herald.com) December 5, 2008 ― The editorial “U.S. health care woefully lacking” was excellent. However, it failed to point a way out of the morass. There is a solution: HR 676, the single-payer plan which has the backing of over 90 members of the House of Representatives.

Titled the National Health Insurance Act, HR 676 would improve Medicare and expand it so that it will include all Americans regardless of income. It would cover all medically necessary services without charging co-pays or deductibles, including primary care, inpatient, outpatient and emergency hospital care, prescription drugs, durable medical equipment, hearing, dental and vision care, chiropractic treatment, mental health services and long term care. Patients will have their choice of physicians, hospitals, clinics, etc. (see www.johnconyers.com/hr676faq).

While immensely increasing health services, HR 676 would decrease health care costs. A chief reason for the cost savings would be the elimination of the thousands of HM0s, bill collection agencies and the ensuing enormous amount of administrative paper work that currently amounts to 30 percent of the cost of health care. Another reason would be the lower drug costs that would result from the government being able to impact the prices (and exorbitant profits) of the big pharmaceutical companies.

An Associated Press-Yahoo Poll (Dec. 14-20, 2007) found that 25.3 percent of Americans want a government-run health care program and 54 percent specifically favored single payer. Today 59 percent of practicing physicians believe we need a national health program.

Private health insurers shall be prohibited from selling coverage that duplicates the benefits of the program.

People come first, before profits.