top ten reasons for a single payer system
1. Everybody in — Nobody out.
Universal means access to health care for everyone, period — the desire of 81% of all Californians, as reported in a January, 2007 Field Poll.
2. Portability. Even if you are unemployed, or lose or change your job, your health coverage goes with you.
3. Uniform benefits. No Cadillac plans for the wealthy and Moped plans for everyone else, with high deductibles, limited services, caps on payments for care, and no protection in the event of a catastrophe. One level of comprehensive care no matter what size your wallet.
4. Prevention. By removing financial roadblocks, a single payer system encourages preventive care that lowers an individual’s ultimate cost and pain and suffering when problems are neglected, and societal cost in the over utilization of emergency rooms or the spread of communicable diseases.
5. Choice of physician. Most private plans restrict what doctors, other caregivers, or hospital you can use. Under a single payer system, patients have a choice, and the provider is assured a fair reimbursement.
6. Ending insurance industry interference with care. Caregivers and patients regain the autonomy to make decisions on what’s best for a patient’s health, not what’s dictated by the billing department or the bean counters. No denial of coverage due to pre-existing conditions or cancellation of policies for “unreported” minor health problems.
7. Reducing administrative waste. One third of every health care dollar in California goes for paperwork, such as denying care, and profits, compared to about 3% under Medicare, a single-payer, universal system.
8. Cost savings. A single payer system would produce the savings needed to cover everyone, largely by using existing resources without the waste. Taiwan, shifting from a U.S. healthcare model, adopted a single-payer system in 1995, boosting health coverage from 57% to 97% with little if any increase in overall healthcare spending.
9. Common sense budgeting. The public system sets fair reimbursements applied equally to all providers while assuring all comprehensive and appropriate health care is delivered, and uses its clout to negotiate volume discounts for prescription drugs and medical equipment.
10. Public oversight. The public sets the policies and administers the system, not high priced CEOs meeting in secret and making decisions based on what inflates their compensation packages or stock wealth or company profits.
*and i will add an eleven, it is the moral and ethical thing to do
*california nurse’s association supports single payer
* national nurses oragnizing commitee supports single payer
*physicians for national health program supports single payer
:::support ca sb 810:::
:::support kucinich & weiner state/fed single payer amendments:::
:::contact representatives:::
0 Responses to top ten reasons for a single payer system
If Single Payer Supporters are being asked to support Public Option Supporters then stick to your Single Payer position.
Its a way to get some of the 10 reasons put into the final Bill-
Yeah, I am done with public option. Screw that, they have dicked it around way too hard if I have to compromise on a compromise that is too big a joke I am just going to back single payer the end.
[Do not tell my grandmother I used that language.]
Beautifully said. Thank you.
Oh hey I cannot take credit for how that is said, that top ten is from a pdf being circulated by I believe the California Nurse’s Association in association with the National Nurse’s Organizing Committee. It just needs to be circulated more and not on a pop up because lots of people don’t open those.
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I like how #3 is put – “No Cadillac plans for the wealthy and Moped plans for everyone else.” Right on! Although I think my current coverage could be classified as falling under “Cadillac” but the monthly payment is killing me! Then again, not having health insurance might kill me too.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t!
As for #1, does that include illegals? I thought Obama said no coverage for illegals which means they will allegedly continue to use the ER as a doctor’s office so we may as well cover them.
(And I think it is the humane thing to do).
Also, Obama has proposed “amnesty” for the 12 million undocumented workers residing in the US which will allow them to qualify for healthcare. I’m wondering if that’s not the best solution. And then we tighten up the borders but that’s another post for another time.
People are so damned worried they might spend a dollar helping out someone else. [Sigh.] The actual fight over immigration as I understand it is there is some sort of “five years before coverage” thing written up for new [legal] citizens, meaning, if you become a U.S. citizen you still have to wait five years for access to a U.S. health plan. This seems stupid and wrongheaded, “Hi, thanks for becoming a citizen and paying taxes but, um, no health care for you.”
It does not make sense. How does one justify denying healthcare to freshly minted US citizens for five years?
I have no idea.