rssSanders, the Lone Senate Voice for Single-Payer Health Coverage
Wednesday, June 03, 2009 at 7:13 pm
- 16 Comments
This morning, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), sponsor of the only Senate bill proposing a single-payer health coverage system, met with Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Finance Committee, and advocates for single-payer health care.
The conclusion? Regret, on the part of Baucus, that he’d failed to invite single-payer proponents to any of the many Finance hearings he’d called earlier this year to explore which direction health reform should go — at least according to Sanders.
“I think that Sen. Baucus indicated that he thought that that was a mistake — not allowing that hearing, not allowing that discussion,” Sanders said after today’s gathering.
Sanders also questioned the logic of a health system in which for-profit insurers — who, by definition, have greater responsibilities to shareholders than they do to patients — are given such powers to dictate who receives what care.
The major reason that our current health care system is so expensive has much to do with the role that private insurance companies play. The function of a private health insurance company is not to provide health care; it is to deny health care. Every dollar of premium that a health insurance company does not spend on health care needs is a dollar more in profits.
Sanders isn’t delusional about single-payer reform getting anywhere this year, but he did indicate that the push is gaining momentum. Indeed, he says, it’s the only way to reach Congress’ stated goal of covering all 46 million uninsured Americans.
In my view this is not a health care issue, this is a political and economic issue. You have the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance compan[ies] making billions and billions of dollars every single year off of people’s illness. I think that that is immoral, and I think it creates a system which is dysfunctional.
And furthermore, these very same institutions — the drug companies, the insurance companies, the medical equipment suppliers — what do they do? They use some of their profits, they pump it back into lobbying [and] campaign contributions — hundreds of millions of dollars over a period of years. That’s what we’re up against. That’s what we’re up against…
At the end of the day, when millions and millions of people say, “Every American is entitled to health care as a right, and it must be comprehensive, and it must be cost effective” — when that day comes, you’re going to have a single payer system.”
Just not this year.
16 Comments
Comment posted June 3, 2009 @ 9:24 pm
YES, THIS YEAR! It's time for a single-payer system NOW.
A new study shows that SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE REFORM WOULD BE A MAJOR STIMULUS FOR THE US ECONOMY and would provide:
** 2.6 Million New Jobs,
** $317 Billion in Business Revenue,
** $100 Billion in Wages, and
** $44 Billion New Tax Revenues
The press release is here: http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/press-rel…
Here’s the study: http://www.calnurses.org/research/pdfs/ihsp_sp_…
Here is a clear definition of Single Payer healthcare:
Single payer health insurance is a system by which the health care expenditures of an entire population are paid for through one source. ??
Distinctly different from socialized medicine (where the government owns and operates health care facilities) a “single payer system” is simply a financing mechanism.The government collects and allocates money for health care but has little to no involvement in the actual delivery of services. Care is provided privately at hospitals and clinics but paid for publicly. (From: http://www.singlepayercentral.com/)
It’s clear that single-payer is the solution, not only in terms of providing quality care for all, but also economically!
Comment posted June 3, 2009 @ 9:27 pm
There are two main arguments in favor of single payer health care.
THE MORAL ETHICAL ARGUMENT
Health insurance companies make their profit by denying health care to sick people. That is immoral and unethical.
THE ECONOMIC ARGUMENT
Our current system of for-profit corporate health insurance has created an unbearable economic burden on the nation. There are over 100 separate health insurance companies operating under different sets of rules creating a huge 30 % administrative overhead. For comparison, administrative overhead for Medicare is only 2%.
By converting to a single payer system, we immediately save 300 billion dollars in administrative overhead. Medicare is a 40 year example of a successful single payer system which has an administrative overhead of 2%, not 30%.
As a nation, we are now paying twice what other countries pay for health care, yet we do not have universal health coverage here in the US. 50 million Americans are without healthcare and 87 million Americans without health insurance at some point in the past 2 years. Almost half the bankruptcies currently filed in the United States are because of medical bills.
Despite the costs we pay, the United States ranks LAST on a list of 19 industrialized nations in preventable deaths, and 29th of 37 in infant mortality. The World Health Organization ranks the US at 72nd for healthcare accessibility and efficiency. We can no longer maintain the status quo for the ways we currently provide and pay for health care.
Comment posted June 4, 2009 @ 6:01 am
“The major reason that our current health care system is so expensive has much to do with the role that private insurance companies play. The function of a private health insurance company is not to provide health care; it is to deny health care. Every dollar of premium that a health insurance company does not spend on health care needs is a dollar more in profits.”
People are just figuring this out?
Pingback posted June 4, 2009 @ 7:06 am
[...] but I continue to remain highly skeptical about the whole healthcare reform debate so long as advocates for a single-payer approach continue to be marginalized in this discussion. So long as we continue to believe that the current health insurance industry [...]
Comment posted June 4, 2009 @ 1:01 pm
“The major reason that our current health care system is so expensive has much to do with the role that private insurance companies play. The function of a private health insurance company is not to provide health care; it is to deny health care. Every dollar of premium that a health insurance company does not spend on health care needs is a dollar more in profits.”
People are just figuring this out?
Pingback posted June 16, 2009 @ 4:02 pm
[...] profits, fat salaries for insurance company CEO, and paying clerks to deny coverage and claims (see here), that means ALMOST 60% OF HEALTH CARE EXPENDITURES ARE UNNECESSARY. Quite an eye opener, isn’t [...]
Comment posted June 24, 2009 @ 8:39 am
Just not this year, eh?
Hmmm… how many more people will either die within this year or slip past “the point of no return” with a condition that becomes terminal? I say this assuming that dying is the worst of it. What about quality-of-life issues and plain 'ol human suffering that come as a result of political posturing. This is yet again all about money, power and the people we elect who apparently care only about themselves and the powerful lobbyist who prop up their careers.
Comment posted June 25, 2009 @ 2:04 am
Forget all the politcal talk. It's useless. The truth is that the medical establishment has already found a solution to trim their costs. Attrition. By letting more people die without treatment, they will save a lot of money! Pharma loses out on long term treatment, and needs to compensate its bottom line. Money Saved by the Hospitals would then go to Pharma. This was Bush's doing: if you're not part of the elite, then we don't care. Does anyone really care? When it's not affecting my very own wallet, it doesn't matter. Let somebodyelse worry about it. I'm a pessimist on the whole picture. I'll keep on seeing all the miserable people who are not in treatment because they cannot afford it.
Comment posted November 24, 2009 @ 10:40 am
I think by making simple decisions to buy or not buy, consumers have changed entire industries — banking, travel, cell phones. A little pressure from consumers typically produces a lot of innovation that shifts products, competition, prices, quality, choices, and ultimately value. The problem with personal and corporate health insurance is that it has been built around providers, insurers, the government, employers — and not around consumers. We've ended up with spiralling costs and few consumer choices, primarily because many of the regulations and mindsets governing health care have inhibited the kind of broad-scale consumer innovation that's happened in other industries.
Comment posted November 24, 2009 @ 3:40 pm
I think by making simple decisions to buy or not buy, consumers have changed entire industries — banking, travel, cell phones. A little pressure from consumers typically produces a lot of innovation that shifts products, competition, prices, quality, choices, and ultimately value. The problem with personal and corporate health insurance is that it has been built around providers, insurers, the government, employers — and not around consumers. We've ended up with spiralling costs and few consumer choices, primarily because many of the regulations and mindsets governing health care have inhibited the kind of broad-scale consumer innovation that's happened in other industries.
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