Estimated cost of state's health plan raises alarm
Letters to the Editor
Boston Globe
February 10, 2008
JONATHAN GRUBER suggests that a single-payer system “would cost many multiples” of the current effort to expand health insurance coverage in Massachusetts through an individual mandate (letters, Feb 1) (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/letters/articles/2008/02/01/recognizing_progress_in_massachusetts_health_reform) Yet at least 18 studies conducted since 1991, including two that examined single-payer plans for Massachusetts in 1998, have found that a single-payer plan could provide comprehensive coverage for everyone while costing less than is now being spent. Savings in insurance overhead and hospital and physician office billing costs would more than offset the cost of providing access to care for those who now don’t have it. Massachusetts should reconsider this cost-effective alternative to the increasingly costly approach now being attempted.
LEONARD RODBERG
New York
The writer is a research director with Physicians for a National Health Program