More Hypocrisy on Universal Health Care

Another informative email list that I belong to is the "Quote of the Day" from the Physicians for a National Health Plan, of which Health Care for All NC is the North Carolina chapter. I'm going to post the highlights of today's Quote of the Day, which shows the full hypocrisy of the health care industry in action.

The Quote of the Day for October 31, 2007 was from a Modern Healthcare article, "Universal healthcare crosses the partisan divide," which mentioned that many attendees at the meeting of the Health Industry Group Purchasing Association seemed to believe that, "Like it or not, within the next few years the U.S. is going to have a nationwide, single-payer system." Following is a response to that article, and two responses to the response.

...While I wholeheartedly agree that we need to provide every American with access to quality healthcare coverage, I cannot and will not believe that it will come from a government-run model...

Under a single-payer system, the government would hold a monopoly over coverage, offering a one-size-fits-all insurance plan. So when the government decides to reduce or deny funding for treatments determined to be too costly, an individual has to forgo potential life-saving treatments, or finance them out-of-pocket. ...

No one is denying the need for healthcare reform or the moral imperative of providing healthcare access to all Americans; but I absolutely disagree with the idea that we can only accomplish these things through a single-payer system. We need to consider alternative healthcare reform solutions, such as free-market reform, and just say no to single-payer.

Janet Trautwein
Chief executive officer and executive vice president National Association of Health Underwriters

The response to this unbiased opinion, by PNHP.

In her comments...Janet Trautwein asserts that a single-payer system would force an individual to "forgo potential life-saving treatments, or finance them out-of- pocket." She recommends instead free-market reform, presumably
private health plans.

She has it backwards. A single-payer system would provide comprehensive benefits and would eliminate financial barriers to care. Private health plans keep their premiums competitive by reducing benefits covered and increasing out-of-pocket spending through patient cost-sharing.
...As chief executive officer and executive vice president of the National Association of Health Underwriters, she represents an industry that exists for the purpose of protecting private insurers from the costs of individuals who need healthcare. In sharp contrast, a single-payer system is designed to protect individuals with healthcare needs from the high costs of that care.

Under a single-payer system, the administrative waste of the health underwriters would be eliminated along with the waste of the private health plans. That would benefit us all.

Don McCanne, M.D.
San Juan Capistrano, Calif.
Senior health policy fellow
Physicians for a National Health Program

Getting rid of this entrenched, crooked system in North Carolina will be a battle, one that they are making easier by screwing over their "customers" more and more each year. If you want to be part of the battle, then I can't say this strongly enough, you must join Health Care for All NC. They are the only group in North Carolina pushing for single-payer health care.