Thursday
Jun112009
Single Payer Health Care Plan On The Table
Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 9:42AM
Single payer health care supporters held a hearing yesterday at the Committee of Education and Labor to testify on the need for health care reform. Those who testified to the committee was U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Geri Jenkins R.N., Walter Tsou M.D., David Gratzer M.D., and Marcia Angell M.D.
"The United States is spending more of our wealth, more of our business firms income, more of our family and individual income on healthcare than any of our industrial competitors anywhere in the world,” said subcommittee chair, Robert Andrews (D-NJ).
Conyers is proposing a bill entitled “The United States Health Care Act” that would “establish a non-profit, publicly-financed, privately-delivered health care system that would ensure that all Americans have meaningful access to the medical provider of their choice,” he said. The legislation would ensure that 3.5 percent of an individual's income would go towards a single payer fund and that the system would not be government-run, meaning that individuals would still be able to choose their own physicians, Conyers said.
But, “creating a new one-size-fits-all health care system modeled on Medicare is a recipe for disaster,” said Rep. John Kline (R-MN), senior Republican for the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions.
Panelist Dr. David Gratzer, opposes single payer healthcare in the U.S. “I was born and raised in Canada...I grew up under socialized medicine and I understand why people would believe in the single-payer system...I changed my mind because I saw the reality [of a single payer system]. Cancer outcomes are better in the United States than they are in Canada, survival rates are better for low birth rate children, even the income in equity health gradient is better than in the United States. ”
Canada currently has a publicly funded health care system with most services provided by the private sector.
When the panel was asked how a single-payer health care system would stimulate the economy, Jenkins described a recent economic study that was done by her and her colleagues: “We not only found that a single-payer system would create a net gain of 2.6 million jobs, it would increase business and public revenues by $317 billion. An additional employee compensation would be another $100 billion which would generate an another $44 billion in tax revenues.”
"The United States is spending more of our wealth, more of our business firms income, more of our family and individual income on healthcare than any of our industrial competitors anywhere in the world,” said subcommittee chair, Robert Andrews (D-NJ).
Conyers is proposing a bill entitled “The United States Health Care Act” that would “establish a non-profit, publicly-financed, privately-delivered health care system that would ensure that all Americans have meaningful access to the medical provider of their choice,” he said. The legislation would ensure that 3.5 percent of an individual's income would go towards a single payer fund and that the system would not be government-run, meaning that individuals would still be able to choose their own physicians, Conyers said.
But, “creating a new one-size-fits-all health care system modeled on Medicare is a recipe for disaster,” said Rep. John Kline (R-MN), senior Republican for the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions.
Panelist Dr. David Gratzer, opposes single payer healthcare in the U.S. “I was born and raised in Canada...I grew up under socialized medicine and I understand why people would believe in the single-payer system...I changed my mind because I saw the reality [of a single payer system]. Cancer outcomes are better in the United States than they are in Canada, survival rates are better for low birth rate children, even the income in equity health gradient is better than in the United States. ”
Canada currently has a publicly funded health care system with most services provided by the private sector.
When the panel was asked how a single-payer health care system would stimulate the economy, Jenkins described a recent economic study that was done by her and her colleagues: “We not only found that a single-payer system would create a net gain of 2.6 million jobs, it would increase business and public revenues by $317 billion. An additional employee compensation would be another $100 billion which would generate an another $44 billion in tax revenues.”
Single Payer Advocates Ask Congress To Start Over On Healthcare Reform
Single payer health insurance advocates are calling on Congress to scrap its healthcare reform bills, and start over using a single payer model.
Single Payer Action President Russell Mokhiber, Dr. Margaret Flowers and Dr. Carol Paris of Physicians for a National Health Program, opposed both the Senate and House's reform plans during a press conference on Wednesday.
“It’s unfair to call this health care reform. This is an insurance industry and pharmaceutical industry bailout,” said Mokhiber. Health care is a human right. Everybody in, nobody out. Join with us in this historic movement to defeat the Democratic bill.”
Flowers questioned how favorably Congress's bills would stack up against a single payer system.
“It’s designed to fail. If our goal for this country is to provide health care for every person in a way that is financially sustainable and have it be both universal and cost-efficient, this is not the way to do it,” she said.
The plan advocated for by the panelists would ensure that all Americans obtain health care coverage through one national insurance program. In 2005 Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) introduced H.R. 676, legislation that would have created a single payer system by using existing government revenues to insure people and increasing personal income tax on the top five percent of income earners - including a tax on stock and bond transactions.
Earlier this year, the four panelists from Wednesday's discussion were ordered out of the Senate Finance Committee hearings after the committee rejected a single payer amendment. Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) had all four arrested in the hearing room. They later pleaded not guilty and were ordered to refrain from protesting on Capitol Hill for one year.