Healthcare-NOW!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 27, 2011
CONTACT:
Katie Robbins: National Organizer, Healthcare-NOW!. 330-618-6379, katie@healthcare-now.org.
Donna Smith: Community Organizer/Legislative Advocate, California Nurses Association/National Nurses United. 773-617-4493, donnas@calnurses.org.
Philadelphia, PA – As Washington stalls over reaching a deal on the debt ceiling, residents across the country point to a solution to our health and fiscal crisis: “Improved Medicare-for-all.” The Medicare program will celebrate its 46th anniversary this Saturday, July 30, and events are planned from coast-to-coast to honor the nation’s most popular social insurance program, as well as call for its preservation and expansion.
In deals being made over increasing the debt ceiling, cuts to Medicare, along with Medicaid and Social Security, have been discussed by both Republicans and Democrats. The false claims that Medicare costs are out of control leads Americans to believe that Medicare itself is an unsustainable program, when the truth is that Medicare costs themselves are not rising – it is healthcare costs as a whole that have become unsustainable.
“The real problem is the soaring costs of health care that lie beneath Medicare,” said Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton. “They’re costs all of us are bearing in the form of soaring premiums, co-payments, and deductibles. Medicare offers a means of reducing these costs – if Washington would let it.”i
An enormous amount of waste in our healthcare system comes from propping up the for-profit health insurance companies resulting in one out of every three healthcare dollars goes to administration, billing, advertising, CEO salaries and profits, while leaving most Americans uninsured or under-insured. Conversely, Medicare – acting as single payer by collecting all healthcare fees and paying out all healthcare costs for the elderly and the disabled – has a modest overhead of only 3 percent.ii
Healthcare-NOW!, a national advocacy organization for universal single-payer healthcare, knows that the solution to our nation’s deficit will not be found by cutting our vital social insurance programs. Rather, the solution lies in a national single-payer system or Medicare-for-all. This would greatly control sky-rocketing health costs, and reduce administrative waste, medical errors and unnecessary medical procedures and tests, as well as allow the government to use its enormous bargaining power to negotiate lower rates with hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. A national single-payer healthcare system would save $400 billion a year in overall health costs.iii
“We don’t have a fiscal problem in this country, we have a priority problem,” said Katie Robbins, Healthcare-NOW! National Organizer. “Healthcare-NOW! calls for responsible government that uses our healthcare dollar wisely and equitably, not a government that sacrifices human needs for political theater.”
As Congress and the White House hold working-class Americans’ needs hostage, thousands of Healthcare-NOW! members and supporters have organized more than 40 actions at Congressmembers’ offices and community centers in over 20 states to tell them Medicare is the solution – not the problem.
In honor of Medicare’s 46th, Healthcare NOW! members from across the country submitted videos detailing their personal experiences with the broken healthcare system. Phyllis Myers of Detroit stated, “When you have to spend $1000 for a supply of medication for one month…it is really harsh.”
“I have multiple sclerosis and need a medication in order to have a full and productive life,” said Roger Starcher of Charlotte, NC. “Aetna has consistently denied this medication and refuses to pay for it. That’s why I support Medicare-for-all in America.”
Healthcare-NOW is joined by many allied organizations including Physicians for a National Health Program, Progressive Democrats of America and National Nurses United in calling attention to Medicare’s anniversary and the Medicare-for-all solution.
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*To see the video submissions by Phyllis Myers, Roger Starcher and dozens more, please visit our website at http://www.healthcare-now.org/campaigns/single-payer-rally/why-i-want-medicare-for-all/.
*For a complete listing of events nationwide, visit http://www.healthcare-now.org/takeaction/events-calendar/
i Reich, R. (2011, July 23). Medicare Is the Solution, Not the Problem. Reader Supported News. Retrieved from http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/272-39/6724-medicare-is-the-solution-not-the-problem
ii Woolhandler, S., M.D., M. P. H., Campbell, T., M.H. A. & Himmelstein, D. U., M.D. (2003). Costs of Health Care Administration in the United States and Canada. The New England Journal of Medicine, 349. Retrieved from https://pnhp.org/publications/nejmadmin.pdf
iii See above (Costs of Health Care Administration in the United States and Canada).