Single-payer is path to universal coverage
By Dr. Taro Adachi
Baltimore Sun
Letter to the Editor
Nov. 25, 2008
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/letters/bal-ed.le.letters25n10nov25,0,3920952.story
The concept of the health insurance industry guiding the terms for a national health care plan would be worth a laugh if it wasn’t so dangerous (“Insurers propose health care terms,” Nov. 20).
Leaders of America’s Health Insurance Plans have suggested that, in exchange for agreeing to accept all customers regardless of health conditions, they want a federal requirement that everyone buy coverage. But we have already seen such plans consistently fail on a state level.
The Massachusetts health care plan, which was supposed to create universal coverage, has left hundreds of thousands of people uninsured because the premiums and out-of-pocket expenses are too costly for many to afford.
Other states have tried similar plans but have also failed to achieve universal coverage as a result of annual increases in insurance premiums that make the subsidies many people need to afford care prohibitively expensive.
Mandates requiring people to purchase health insurance are unrealistic when the cost makes health insurance unaffordable.
Health insurance premiums have significantly risen every year, hurting both employers and consumers. This trend would not end under the industry’s current proposal. Instead, we would continue to pay profit-seeking insurers more while we get less care.
We must face the fact that the health insurance industry is a market failure and encourage our political leaders to see that a true single-payer national health system is not only politically feasible but necessary.
The writer is a member of Physicians for a National Health Program.