The case for national health care

medicineman · #1 11-28-2006, 10:35 PM

Published on Friday, August 22, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
What the Press is Not Reporting - The Case for National Health Care and Affordable Cable
by Ralph Nader

August is supposed to be a slow month in Washington, DC but two public reports released by two news conferences on August 12th seem to indicate it is the press that is slow.
Eight thousand doctors called for national health insurance and outlined their detailed single payer plan in an article published by the Journal of the American Medical Association. The signers included two former U.S. Surgeons General, the former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, hundreds of medical school professors and deans and many practicing physicians throughout the country.
Dr. Marcia Angell of the Harvard Medical School said "In the current economic climate, we can no longer afford to waste the vast resources we do on the administrative costs, executive salaries and profiteering of the private insurance system." A factual predicate for her statement was given by Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, also of Harvard, who stated that "we are already spending enough to provide every American with superb medical care - $5,775 per person this year. That's 42% higher than in Switzerland, which has the world's second most expensive health care system, and 83% higher than in Canada."
In essence an expanded and improved version of traditional medicare, the proposal, they assert, would save at least $200 billion annually on paperwork and administration. This sum alone would cover all the uninsured and upgrade coverage for those who are under-insured.
These thousands of physicians are "taking a stand on the side of patients and repudiating the powerful insurance and drug lobbies that block wholesome reform," said Dr. Quentin Young, former head of the Departmentof Medicine at Chicago's Cook County Hospital. The physicians' plan would provide universal, comprehensive coverage without increasing overall health spending and give patients their free choice of doctor and hospital (which today's HMOs prohibit). Most hospitals and clinics would remain privately owned and operated. What is unique about this proposal by the Physicians for a National Health Program is not only its life-saving potential, its increase in efficiency and its restraint on greed and poor quality care. It is also its detailed explanation on how it is to be paid for, how savings will result and how a much more benign reallocation of where the money now goes to where it should go if patients' needs are first. See Physicians for a National Health Program - Health Care is a Human Right for more details or call 312-782-6006.