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05.07 YouthWorks Campaign Needs Support for Summer Jobs
04.14 The High Cost of School Violence
04.30 A Litany of Horrors
04.17 Peter Hallward's "Damming the Flood" (Part II)
04.14 Peter Hallward's "Damming the Flood" (Part I)
Ref. : Letters to the editor
04.28 Green Scare State Terrorism
04.21 Hunger Plagues Haiti and the World
04.16 WORLD FACING HUGE NEW CHALLENGE ON FOOD FRONT
Ref. : Single-Payer FAQ
Ref. : Environmental Health News
Ref. : Sundance Channel's THE GREEN
Ref. : What is Global Warming, and what can citizens do about it?
Ref. : Global Warming Links
Ref. : Health & Nutrition Links
05.06 US Media Trivializes Campaign 2008
05.06 Death's Factotum: Michael Gordon and the Times Pour Pentagon Poison into Nation's Ear
05.05 TV News Blackout on Pentagon Pundits
05.05 Color-Coded: Jeremiah Wright and the Real Deal on Race
05.02 The Right's America-Hating Preacher
04.23 Pentagon Pundits
04.22 US News Media's Latest Disgrace
04.18 ABC's Debate Debacle
04.16 Reprising the Genocidal Fury of Thomas Friedman
04.11 The Very Annoying Washington Post
04.10 BBC: Imperial Tool
05.09 The Democratic Presidential Race: A View from Pennsylvania
05.08 Serving the System: Corporate Control of U.S. Would Continue Under Obama
05.06 A Republican for Barack
05.05 Thinking About Voter Registrations
05.05 'Beware the Terrible Simplifiers'
05.01 U.S. Military Coordinated Day Of Prayer Events With Christian Right Group
04.30 John McCain Won’t Be Looking for the Union Label
04.30 Put Him Out With the Pastor!
04.25 Clinton Courted Racists in the Pennsylvania Primary
04.24 Groundbreaking Book Documents Widespread Election Fraud; Warns Elections Vulnerable to Theft
04.24 Triviamongering in the U.S. presidential race
04.24 Campaign 1988 Lives!
04.23 Hillary Clinton's Monstrous Threat
04.21 Brilliant Disguise: Bush Torture, Obama and The Boss
04.19 The Clintons, Triangulating with China
04.18 American Hegemony Is Not Guaranteed
04.18 Are the Clintons Playing Joe McCarthy?
04.17 The Weather Underground 'Theme'
04.15 Political Log Rolling in Clinton Country
04.15 Clinton's Experience: Fact and Fancy
04.14 Bill and Hillary's 'Stockholm Syndrome'
04.14 Finding Voters “Bitter and Frustrated,” Obama is Sounding Like Nader
05.10 Lost E-Mails Obscure 'Plame-gate'
05.09 Fallujah Revisited: Bush, Petraeus Prepare 'Cleansing' of Sadr City
05.09 Shoot, Kill, Lie, Repeat: America's New Moral Universe
05.07 Willing Executioners: America's Bipartisan Atrocity Deepens in Somalia
05.05 The Terror Master: Bush Orders Covert 'Surge' Against Iran, with Dem Support
05.01 American and Israeli War Crimes: Same Atrocities, Different Responses
04.30 Halliburton Bribe Case Haunts Cheney
04.29 Getting Over Scalia
04.29 The Iraq War Morphs Into The Iranian War
04.28 The Torture Election
04.28 The Clock is Ticking for A US Attack on Iran
04.28 The Bush Team's Geneva Hypocrisy
04.25 New Terror War Atrocity: Beheading the Innocent for Bush in Somalia
04.23 Glorious Fruits of the War for Civilization
04.22 VA Tried to Conceal Extent of Attempted Veteran Suicides, Email Shows
04.21 What About the War, Benedict?
04.18 Updating Sami Al-Arian - His Ordeal Continues
04.16 Would Obama Hold Bush Accountable?
04.15 Bush's Torture Quote Undercuts Denial
04.14 Too Much of Nothing: Crime Without Punishment, War Without End
04.11 Capital Crimes: Another Smoking Gun on Terror War Torture
04.10 Catch 2,200
04.10 Yoo's on First?
05.08 Portrait of an Oil-Addicted Former Superpower
04.28 Thinking About Subtleties
04.23 The Oil Vice
04.22 The US Economy and the Costs of War
04.21 Thinking About Shakiness
04.15 Watching the Dollar Die
05.05 Sixty Years of Palestinian Displacement, Occupation and Suffering
05.02 Feeding Moloch: Last Barriers to War on Iran Come Down
05.01 The Iranian Chessboard
05.01 Blood Diamonds, Blood Oil and Blood Food
05.01 Denying Palestinians Free Movement in the West Bank
04.30 The Ignored Lessons on the Stupidity of War
04.24 Breaking the Silence - Israeli Soldiers Speak
04.23 What the Iraq War is about
TO YOUR HEALTH:
Single-Payer FAQ
What else has Single Payer been called? Medicare for all. Canadian-style health care.
How is the current non-system organized? The health care insurance industry's sole reason for existence is to make a profit for its owners, its stockholders. The best way to maximize profits is to provide as little actual health care as possible. Sell a product (health care) but deliver as little of it as possible. Insure only healthy people. Drop those who have chronic illnesses or develop catastrophic health problems. Use these profits for obscene executive salaries. Advertising. Administration. Lawyers. Clerks. Accountants. Denial experts. Stock dividends. Lobbyists. Campaign contributions. They call these expenses "overhead."
How much does this overhead add up to? Up to 30 per cent or more, which means that only 70 cents of every dollar spent for health insurance is available for actual health care. With a Single Payer system, these costs could actually be used for health care. The savings amount to about $630 billion per year, which is way more than enough to provide comprehensive health care for the 54 million uninsured and under-insured.
Well, aren't these overhead costs just the cost of doing business? No. Medicare's overhead is in the 1 to 2 percent range. This means that 98 cents on the dollar is available for health care.
How do other countries deliver their health care? The U.S. stands alone among all modem industrialized nations in not having a system for providing health care for all of its citizens.
What do we actually pay for health care in the U.S.? Up to twice as much as most of the rest of the industrialized world, approximately $7,129 per person per year.
Well, don't people without insurance get care in our emergency rooms and through Medicaid? Yes, some do, but under circumstances that may delay, postpone or actually avoid care that is needed.
So what? Study after study has shown that care that is delayed, substandard or outright avoided results in suffering, disability and death. Not to mention the excess costs for care that is provided in emergency rooms, or by hospitalizations that could have been avoided by earlier diagnosis and care—costs that all of us pay by increased taxes and increased premiums.
How would Single-Payer work? A public agency would be created to organize health care financing, collecting money and paying the bills. Government is very good at these two tasks. The health care insurance industry would be eliminated as we currently know it. Insurance companies currently intrude as a barrier between the patient and the doctor. Health care costs would be controlled by a process of negotiation with drug companies, hospitals, doctors and other providers, creating a system that would be reasonable and fair to all.
Can we afford such a system? Recapturing the overhead lost in the current "non-system" and making it available for actual health care would mean that we can afford comprehensive care for everyone—including drugs, dental, mental, doctors, hospitals, vision, long-term care, medical equipment, medical devices, etc.
Would my doctor or hospital be assigned to me? No. You would be free to choose any doctor or hospital or other service that you need.
Well, if it is that simple and that great, why don't we already have such a system? Good question. Maybe the best question yet. Lack of political will—a situation created in part by huge lobbying efforts and the expenditure of huge amounts of money to perpetuate the current dysfunctional medical-industrial complex and maintain power and profits at the expense of everyone else. Tradition. Inertia. Fear of change. Successful advertising and propaganda. Remember the "Harry and Louise" ads opposing the minimal efforts at reform proposed during the Clinton years?
How can I learn more? There are websites that you can explore for more information; among them are: MD PNHP (Maryland Physicians for a National Health Program and MD UHCAN (Maryland Universal for a National Health Program).
What can I do to help? Join MD PNHP or MD UHCAN or other organizations active in this cause. Become more informed. Commit time, energy and money to help the efforts to convince legislators that the time has come for Single Payer reform. Don't be passive, indifferent or give up hope. Remember the quote from Winston Churchill when he was asked early in WWII, "Where are the Americans?." He said: "You can always depend on Americans to do the right thing, after they have tried everything else first." We have tried everything else. It is time to do the right thing and provide quality, affordable health care for everyone.
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This story was published on July 31, 2007.
