We can afford a single-payer health plan
Letter to the Editor
San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
If congressional leaders are disturbed by the Congressional Budget Office report that their proposed health reform legislation will deepen “the already staggering national debt” (“Fiscal conservatives grumble over tab for reform,” July 20), they need to ask the question: How would the cost of a single-payer program compare?
Many health policy authorities believe that the “Medicare for all” bills introduced by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, independent-Vt., are the most fiscally prudent and affordable approach to universal, comprehensive, high-quality health care.
It’s time for the president and congressional leaders to stop ignoring reality: The United States can afford national health insurance if the government administers a single-payer program. But what we cannot afford is to continue squandering $400 billion annually on the current dysfunctional patchwork of for-profit private insurance plans.
By adopting a single-payer system, that amount could be plowed back into providing expanded services for the entire population at no additional cost to the country.
LI-HSIA WANG, M.D.
HENRY L. ABRONS, M.D.
Berkeley