HEALTH CARE GAPS: Single payer is not socialized medicine
By DR. ANNE COURTRIGHT
The Pueblo Chieftan, Colorado
Sunday, May 6, 2007
We spend twice as much as any other advanced country on health care yet we rank 37th in the world on health outcomes. Catastrophic medical bills bring on bankruptcy while insurance companies spend 30 percent or their money on administration, marketing and profit. Medicare For All would mean we all contribute and we all get necessary health care. Doctors remain independent and hospital remain private and non-profit.
More than 46.5 million people in the United States are uninsured, 770,000 in Colorado and millions more are underinsured. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, family premiums averaged $11,500 in 2006 while a full time worker, at minimum wage, earns $10,712.
Almost half of personal bankruptcies in this country are filed because of catastrophic medical bills. Seventy-five percent of these families had health insurance when illness struck. Colorado health insurance premiums for families rose 102 percent (more than doubled) between l996 and 2003. High health insurance premiums are making our companies less competitive on the world market, as we are the only advanced country in the world without a universal healthcare system.
Most Americans think we have the best health care in the world. Sadly, the only place we are number one is the amount of money we spend. In health outcomes we rank 37th worldwide.
Why? Because too many of our health care dollars go to administration and profit. The multiple insurance companies, policies and regulations have greatly increased the overhead and frustration of both doctors and hospitals. Health insurance companies spend almost 30 percent of their income on administration, marketing, huge salaries and stock options for their CEOs and dividends for their stockholders. Medicare spends just over 3 percent on administration.
We need to reform the health care delivery system, with the goal of delivering quality health care to every resident of the United States. Care rather than profit should be the driving force. Our current system is not working for the good of our citizens.
Many current proposals for universal health care are only a reshuffling of the present system and will not solve the problem. We need to remove private health insurance companies from the system and have everyone in a single, national risk pool.
A tax-supported single payer program - a modified, expanded Medicare type of system - would save us about $300 billion per year in administrative costs, which could then be spent on direct health care. This is not socialized medicine. Doctors would remain independent and hospitals would be privately owned and non-profit.
They would not bill patients for care, but would negotiate a yearly global budget with the local health board. Doctors would have a single form to fill out and send to one central location. The doctor and patient would again make the decisions about needed care. Everyone contributes. Everyone gets health care. HR676 would create such a national plan. Urge its support!
For a speaker or more information call 719-544-4956, go to www.healthcare-now.org , www.healthcareforallcolorado.org or www.pnhp.org , or attend a free public forum from 5:30-8 p.m. May 14 at the County Conference Room, 1001 N. Santa Fe.
Anne Courtright, a psychiatrist retired from the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, is a member of numerous community organizations, including the Pueblo County Medical Society and the League of Women Voters.