The on-going confusion over "single-payer" health care

Single-payer isn't a synonym for "universal health insurance coverage." The two are separate issues - although many who support one support the other, as well.

Single-payer is only about who administers the payment. It could be the government, it might not be. In either case single-payer doesn't solve the question of "universal" coverage. The President has expressed his belief that while single-payer is an ideal, it is not a practical short-term goal due to the well-established (some would say entrenched) model already in force.

Universal health insurance coverage is one way to insure coverage for those who can't/don't get it through their employer - the unemployed, the self-employed, those who have been denied coverage for any number of reasons, etc.

A "public option" isn't either of those; a public option would mean setting up the government as one possible insurance plan provider among many, each responsible for their own paperwork. It is touted as a possible path to a single-payer system, but given the pragmatic attitude of the President dealing with wealthy companies buying influence in the Congress, it's not even that - and single payer is not going to happen anytime soon despite its obvious cost savings.

By the way: none of these is socialized medicine, either.

As long as what's being discussed is an option, as long as private plans remain available, the public option concept is simply about trying to get everybody covered. Are you with me? "Public option" isn't a synonym for either single-payer or universal health insurance.

Why, you may well ask, do the special interests oppose such changes, particularly that public option, and muddy the waters in the media while lobbying in Congress? Because insurance industry surveys show that a public option wouldn't attract merely the 50 million uninsured Americans, but actually more than double that number. Insurance companies don't want to compete with a plan system that operates efficiently on such low overhead - it threatens their profits, and the salaries and bonuses of the CEOs who, in some cases, earn tens of millions of dollars per year under the current system.

“…what we’ve seen is that the private healthcare insurers do not know how to deliver an efficient way.”

World Bank Chief Economist, Joseph Stiglitz

Reform health care in the U.S.A. now

Released: Thursday, March 26, 2009 BURLINGTON, VT

Howard Dean launched a new campaign yesterday evening on a Democracy for America conference call with thousands of supporters across the country. The former chair of the DNC called on Congress to pass healthcare reform which includes a universally available public option, such as Medicare.

"Healthcare reform legislation rises and falls on whether the American public is allowed to choose a universally available public option, like Medicare, or not."

"If we are allowed to choose a public option like Medicare, the bill will be real healthcare reform. If we're not, we could be back fighting about it for another 20 years before anybody tries again."

~Governor Howard Dean, M.D.

Dr. Dean's announcement comes at a time when insurance companies and HMO's have vowed to fight President Obama on his campaign promise to include a publicly available option in the healthcare reform he wants passed by Congress this year.

"The battle against real healthcare reform already begun. Our Stand With Dr. Dean campaign will ensure that policy makers in DC hear from every American, not just big money who will stop at nothing to retain the status quo."

~Arshad Hasan, Executive Director of Democracy For America.

As a first step in the campaign, Dr. Dean asked supporters to add their name to a petition statement at www.StandwithDrDean.com. The campaign will be run by Governor Dean and Democracy For America. This is the beginning of a multi-pronged campaign which will generate broad based support for a public option through neighborhood canvasses, meetings with legislators, running ads in targeted districts, and more. The organization expects to deliver over 250,000 signatures to members of Congress in the weeks to come.

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I know it’s fashionable in certain circles to say government can’t get things done - but big insurance has had decades of control over our medical decisions and costs, and they sure aren’t getting it done right. We pay more per capita than any other nation, yet the results are high costs and millions with no coverage at all. Let’s put an end to bureaucrats at insurance companies making decisions about our medication and treatment now, those decisions should be left to skilled doctors and nurses interested in our well-being, not accountants and CEOs interested in their bottom lines.

Health insurance industry red tape hurts - it adds no value

It's time to put doctors and nurses back in charge of medical decisions. If you think government can't get anything right, ask yourself: has big insurance been getting health care right? No way.The insurance industry profits by taking roughly 1/3 of the money going to health care to pay for overhead while they overturn the decisions of doctors to pay executive bonuses.

Big insurance companies make so much money that they spend millions of dollars on lobbyists every year in DC, yet costs are outrageous and a disgraceful number of people don't even have coverage. Obviously there's big money working to keep the status quo or this would have been fixed decades ago. Instead of reform, instead of the kind of continuous quality improvement they apply to their internal functions, we get red tape - we get misinformation trying to label any reforms as "socialized medicine" while medical decisions are made by bureaucrats.

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Obama's single-payer health care beats socialized medicine.

Why all the fuss about single payer? Because nearly 1/3 of the health care dollar goes to overhead, currently, while Medicare keeps costs in the 2-3% range. Administering health care is something the U.S. government can do VERY efficiently compared to private insurers, partly because ad campaigns, salaries & bonuses aren't allowed to be outrageous.

The only ones who stand to lose are insurance companies and their overpaid execs - even doctors are on-board with this concept.

Do you know what the estimate is for the money that could be saved on paperwork alone? $350 BILLION per YEAR. On paperwork to keep the plethora of insurance forms filled out. All so non-medically trained bureaucrats can make decisions about how much to pay for medical procedures versus how much to pay the insurance executives.

Duke Medical has a ratio of one billing clerk PER hospital bed in their system just to cope with all the insurance forms and rules. That's plain got to stop.

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