Massachusetts needs universal health care
By Pat Berger
West Roxbury Transcript
Wed Oct 15, 2008, 10:29 AM EDT
WEST ROXBURY, Mass. — Voters in parts of West Roxbury, Roslindale and Brookline (Michael Rush’s district) will have the opportunity to vote on a non-binding ballot question on Election Day — Nov. 4. The ballot question was initiated by Mass-Care, the organization that sponsors the campaign for single-payer health care reform in Massachusetts.
The wording of the ballot question is as follows:
“Shall the representative from this district be instructed (1) to support legislation that establishes health care as a human right regardless of age, state of health or employment status, by creating a single-payer health insurance system that is comprehensive, cost effective, and publicly provided to all residents of Massachusetts, and (2) to oppose any laws penalizing the uninsured for failing to obtain health insurance.”
Voters may wonder why they should vote “yes” on the ballot question that asks support for a universal single-payer health care system. Don’t we have universal health care now? Didn’t we pass a new law in 2006 that gives everyone health insurance coverage?
The fact is that we don’t have universal coverage now. Over 400,000 people have signed up for subsidized and non-subsidized health insurance plans, but there are still around 300,000 uninsured people who haven’t bought private commercial insurance policies largely because the premiums and out-of-pocket expenses are not affordable.
Even residents with “good” employer-based private health insurance are vulnerable to crushing medical debt if they lose their jobs whether from serious illness or economic problems.
Only a single-payer system guarantees health care for all Massachusetts’ residents continuously.
Our present law was designed to cover the uninsured by having the state subsidize the health care premiums for families earning below 300 percent of the federal poverty level and helping people in higher income brackets find “affordable” insurance through the Connector.
Many other states including Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii have tried similar plans in the past, but all have failed in the long term because the annual 10 to 15 percent escalation of health insurance premiums have made the subsidies unaffordable for the state.
The basic problem with the new law is that it leaves the health insurance industry (with its profit motive) in control of our health care system. The insurers set the premiums for their “products,” not the state.
Furthermore the insurance industry wastes 20 to 30 percent of the health care dollars on high CEO salaries, administrative waste, marketing, underwriting and an endless round of claims denials.
In the spring of 2008, the 12 percent to 15 percent hike in proposed health insurance premiums prompted the state’s Connector to protest and demand that the insurance companies find a way to lower their premiums. The insurers came back with a 7 percent to 8 percent rise in premiums but shifted the costs to the patients by raising co-pays and deductibles and reducing benefits.
As Dr. Marcia Angell, former Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine said, “The health insurers try to keep premiums down and profits up by stinting on medical services. We are the only nation in the world with a health care system based on dodging sick people.”
What we all want is easy access to affordable high quality medical care and regular preventive care that promotes good health and gives us full choice of providers. We want our health care system to be sustainable on the long term and be equitable so that access to medical care is not based on race, ability to pay, gender, religion or sexual orientation but is based on medical need.
We oppose the punitive individual mandate in our present law that fines the most vulnerable residents for not purchasing health insurance.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”
Vote “YES” on Question #4 Nov. 4th!
Pat Berger is Co-Chair of Mass-Care. For further information, visit www.masscare.org