Quote of the Day
PNHP's Senior Health Policy Fellow Don McCanne, M.D. writes a daily health policy update, taking an excerpt or quote from a health care news story or analysis on the Internet and commenting on its significance to the single-payer health care reform movement. PNHP posts Dr. McCanne's listserv here; to subscribe to the listserv, please visit the Quote of the Day the mailing list website.
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NHIS numbers, and building on what works - July 2, 2009
Everywhere you turn those rejecting single payer, including President Obama, say that we want to build on what works and fix what's broken. They say that what works is our employer-sponsored system of coverage. But does it?Does US Chamber soft talk hide their agenda? - July 1, 2009
"So I think Congress is realizing that it's gonna be trouble if they try to roll us," and "I'm sorry that things have gotten to the point where we're having to beat up on members of Congress." Was this guy nurtured on "The Sopranos," or is he the real thing? Regardless, are the owners of America's businesses really as heartless as this jerk implies? Do they really believe that their workers would be "getting the shaft" by having health insurance with adequate benefits?Starr, Reich and Kuttner on the public option - June 30, 2009
To rephrase the very important point that Paul Starr brings to this debate, it is not the design of the public option that is crucial to successful reform under the model being advanced in Congress, but rather it is that the design of the insurance exchanges must be absolutely compliant with the rules of social insurance. If the exchanges are poorly designed, the public option would become a Medicaid-like dumping ground for low-income people with high-cost problems, and would suffer from a lack of willing providers because of chronic underfunding. And poorly designed exchanges could never meet the test of social insurance.Uninsured by choice - June 29, 2009
By now you must be annoyed by those on the right who repeatedly claim that we do not have a problem with uninsured individuals. They say that the actual problem is that we are not counting them properly. Most of the uninsured would be insured, if only they showed a little more personal responsibility.An insurance insider speaks up - June 26, 2009
Wendell Potter, a former CIGNA executive, provides an insider's view as to what type of behavior we can expect from the private insurance industry after reform is enacted. No matter the details of the reform legislation, the industry will always find innovative ways to advance the interests of their executives and their investors. It is absolutely inevitable that these innovations will be to the detriment of patients and payers.PNHP testimony before two House committees today - June 24, 2009
Single payer is now a part of the dialogue in Congress. Now if only we can convert the single payer dialogue into single payer policy.David Brooks - Kill this effort and start over - June 23, 2009
You state that John Sheils has shown that building on the existing system is the single most expensive option for reform. What you didn't state is that Sheils has also shown that a single payer national health program is the least expensive, and is the most effective in achieving the goals of universality and cost containment.House Tri-Committee public option - June 22, 2009
With the release of the discussion draft of the House Tri-Committee reform proposal, the progressive community is celebrating the decision to include a "strong public option" within the health insurance exchange. Its innovative feature, different from other public option proposals, is that it would use lower Medicare-based rates for the first three years, enabling the public option to displace some higher-premium private plans within the insurance exchange. Then in the fourth year, rates would be adjusted to provide a level playing field with the private plans.Senate Finance proposes unaffordable underinsurance - June 19, 2009
The Senate Finance Committee members were informed by the Congressional Budget Office that the impact their preliminary reform proposal would have on the federal budget would be much greater than a bipartisan consensus would permit. Before moving further forward with the legislative process, the committee is considering changes to reduce the amount of funds that would have to be budgeted. The draft proposal cited above is not a definitive recommendation but merely presents ideas for discussion.Scrushy and the medical-industrial complex: a lesson for reformers - June 18, 2009
In a landmark 1980 New England Journal of Medicine editorial, former Editor-in-Chief Arnold Relman warned us of the new "Medical-Industrial Complex," referring to "a medical care system that had begun to attract investors, and in which business interests had started to reshape the behavior of doctors and health care facilities."Sen. Bernie Sanders' Petition to Congress - June 17, 2009
Let's let Congress know how many of us there are who really care.CBO score: everyone covered, except 37 million - June 16, 2009
Since the Affordable Health Choices Act and the CBO analysis of it are works in progress, the estimates of the net numbers who will gain insurance coverage and the net cost to the government are only preliminary and will likely change with refinements in the legislation and the analysis. What will not change are the fundamental implications of financing health care through government subsidized private health plans plus public programs.President Obama's proposal to pay for reform - June 15, 2009
What does President Obama mean when he says that this is how we're going to pay for most of his health care reform proposals? Is he referring to savings in the actual costs of health care that would offset the increased spending that would result from expanding coverage? Or is he merely referring to a decrease in government spending that helps with government budgets, but doesn't really have much impact on our total national health expenditures (NHE)?The view of those in the trenches supporting health care for all - June 12, 2009
The Health Care Council of Orange County (California) has a mission of promoting access to improved health care for all Orange County residents through unified efforts to identify and address areas of need through research, collaboration, education and advocacy. The audience attending the annual meeting was composed of individuals who are quite well informed on the problems with our health care system, and they have been following the reform efforts taking place in Washington. Their opinions should matter to us.AMA and PNHP on public insurance - June 11, 2009
In opposing a government-sponsored insurance plan, why would the AMA limit its objection to a public plan that would cover only non-disabled individuals under age 65? What about those over 65 and those with long-term disabilities? Of course, they are covered by Medicare, a plan that the AMA continues to lobby for, even though they were vehemently opposed to it before it was enacted.House HELP Committee hearing on single payer - June 10, 2009
Although there are many individual heroes in the single payer movement, joint citizen activism has played a crucial role in bringing the single payer message to a formal, official hearing before a committee of the House of Representatives - a hearing devoted exclusively to single payer.Expand state programs for low-income individuals? - June 9, 2009
Because of the very high costs of health care, the private insurers have not been able to offer products to low-income individuals that they can afford. In response, the federal and state governments have enacted programs designed to meet the health care needs of low-income individuals, usually financed jointly by the federal and state governments and administered by the states.Kaiser Health Tracking Poll - June 8, 2009
Pretending that the majority of Americans would risk their current health security for a more egalitarian system for everyone will not move the process for reform forward. Only when people understand that a single payer system would benefit them individually would they be willing to support reform that incidentally benefits everyone else as well. We still have work to do.President Obama on the individual mandate - June 5, 2009
He said that if we make people responsible for their own insurance (individual mandate), then we must grant a hardship waiver to exempt people who cannot afford it. But the primary reason that people have not purchased insurance in the individual market is that the plans are not affordable. Most of these individuals will be eligible for the hardship waiver and will remain uninsured.Medical bankruptcies increasing - June 4, 2009
In the United States, medical bankruptcy is very real, it is common, and it impacts primarily the insured middle class. And Congress is going to fix it with more of the same broken financing system?