Single Payer Universal Health - an issue we can win on! Please read [View All]

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

A lot of the discussion about a true national health care gets de-railed simply because people do not have a good grasp of the fundamentals.

It is NOT socialized medicine. It is simply gets rid of the gross inefficiencies in our current system. The government would not own the hospitals, the clinics, the doctors, etc.

We CAN afford it- as Dennis Kucinich says
"We're already paying for universal coverage. We're just not getting it."


We can do this. It is smart. It is moral. It will save us money. It will mean that no American will ever again lose their home due to medical bills. It will unleash a wave of creativity and business and industry renaissance as business gets freed from this shackle of tying healthcare to employment. It will make our goods and services more competitive.

The system we have in place right this moment is for the benefit of the few (the insurance industry) at the expense of the many. The following sites will help you frame and discuss and hopefully persuade others that the time has finally come for true, complete healthcare reform. No more tinkering at the edges while leaving the rotting core!



Physicians for a National Health Program
http://www.pnhp.org/

We believe that the current malaise afflicting health policy debate will be short lived; that bold and articulate advocacy for national health insurance can coalesce the broad constituency for change. Please join us in insisting that medicine be a public service, not a business.

Dennis Kucinich
http://www.kucinich.us/issues/universalhealth.php

Universal Health Care
I have a detailed plan to provide universal health care. Others may use that phrase, but their plans leave many Americans without coverage. Under my plan, patients and doctors are put in charge of the system, instead of HMOs and private insurance companies. Patients are able to select their doctors. The costs are completely covered by the government. And we don't end up paying any more than what we're paying now. A new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Public Citizen estimates that national health insurance could save at least $286 billion annually on paperwork, enough to cover all of the uninsured and to provide full prescription drug coverage for everyone in the United States.

Graham Walker
an animated five minute presentation
http://www.grahamazon.com/sp/whatissinglepayer.php

I'm a medical student, computer geek, health policy wonk, weblogger, health care activist, and all around good guy. I promise. I believe that the current health system is a mess: disorganized, wasteful, inefficient, and many times, harmful. My goal is to educate. I think there's a lot of facts out there that we don't hear about, and you can bet my bippy that I'm going to be a Great Equalizer if it's at all possible.

Healthcare Now
http://www.healthcare-now.org/takeaction.php?sid=3
Great all around take action site


Massachusetts Nurses Association
http://www.massnurses.org/single_payer/singlepay.htm

MNA Supports Single Payer Health Care Initiative
We are part of a health system which has replaced humanitarian values with the heartless tenets of the market. Why do all attempts to “reform” the system seem only to make the problem worse? For a health system to meet the needs of us and those entrusted to our care, three essentials must be addressed simultaneously and consistently: Access, Quality, Affordability. The Single Payer health care system promises to do all three.

Wall Street Journal
By BENJAMIN BREWER, M.D.

Government-Funded Care
Is the Best Health Solution

Multiple Insurers, Multiple Plans
Create Expensive, Draining Hassle
April 18, 2006

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114528925682927634-_5EosXnvZvOGsZWwHcizX8WTpck_20070418.html?mod=blogs

A recently approved Massachusetts plan designed to force all residents to get health insurance was a step in the right direction, but it doesn't go far enough.

Under the Massachusetts approach, there will still be a maze of plans provided by any number of insurers. That multiplicity is the problem. Multiple insurers and multiple plans create layers of unneeded expense and bureaucracy related to billing, collections and the entire assembly line of middlemen between the service rendered and the payment.

The solution that would really put health-care dollars, and providers, to their best use would be a single-payer system -- namely, government-funded health coverage for all.