[Peace-discuss] Single-payer health reform bill introduced in Senate

[C. G. Estabrook]

It's as necessary to regulate medicine as it is to regulate banking. 
Single-payer is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for regulation.

Cf. conditions for calling the tune...

E. Wayne Johnson wrote:
> The medical-pharmaceutical-industrial complex has insulated the American 
> public from price discovery
> by having people pay a tiny fraction of the bill as "co-pay".  
> Meanwhile, behind the curtain, hundreds and thousands
> of dollars are exchanged for services worth tens of dollars, and dollars 
> are paid for drugs worth pennies.
> 
> So called "Health Care" in the US is one of the biggest rip-off scams in 
> the world.  Americans have been
> lied to, and they seem to prefer the lie to the reality that they have 
> been duped and defrauded on an epic scale.
> 
> Single-payer doesn't address the root.  The monster still gets paid at 
> the rate it demands.
> 
> 
> E. Wayne Johnson wrote:
>> My concern is that the American "Health Care" system is designed to 
>> deliver medical services at maximum profit with minimum liability.
>>
>> Most of the proposals don't dare to attack the 
>> medical-pharmaceutical-industrial complex at its roots.
>>
>> Americans are afraid that if they challenge the morality and 
>> effectiveness of the medical supply system,
>> then their doctors will simply let them die. Don't mess with us or we 
>> won't fix your problem, or worse.
>> Waterboarding at a refined level.
>>
>> The problem with so-called "single-payer" is that it doesn't actually 
>> fix the system in any way,
>> it simply opens up a new well-funded market for the existing system.
>>
>>
>> C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>>>     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>>>     March 26, 2009
>>>     Contacts:
>>>     Quentin Young, M.D., (312) 782-6006
>>>     Mark Almberg, (312) 782-6006, cell: (312) 622-0996, mark at pnhp.org
>>>
>>> *Single-payer health reform bill introduced in Senate*
>>>
>>> *Would save $400 billion on bureaucracy, enough to cover all 46 million
>>> uninsured Americans*
>>>
>>> Challenging head-on the powerful private insurance and pharmaceutical
>>> industries, Vermont's Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced a single-payer 
>>> health
>>> reform bill, the American Health Security Act of 2009, in the U.S. 
>>> Senate
>>> Wednesday. The bill is the first to directly take on the powerful 
>>> lobbies
>>> blocking universal health reform in the Senate since Sen. Paul 
>>> Wellstone's
>>> tragic death.
>>>
>>> The single-payer approach embodied in Sanders' new bill stands in sharp
>>> contrast to the reform models being offered by the White House and by 
>>> key
>>> lawmakers like Senators Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Edward Kennedy 
>>> (D-Mass.).
>>> Their plans would preserve a central role for the private insurance
>>> industry, sacrificing both universal coverage and cost containment 
>>> during
>>> the worst economic crisis since the Depression.
>>>
>>> In contrast, Sanders' new legislation would cover all of the 46 million
>>> Americans who currently lack coverage and improve benefits for all
>>> Americans by eliminating co-pays and deductibles and restoring free 
>>> choice
>>> of physician. The most fiscally conservative option for reform, single
>>> payer slashes private insurance overhead and bureaucracy in medical
>>> settings, saving over $400 billion annually that can be redirected into
>>> clinical care.
>>>
>>> "This is excellent news for the nation's health," said Dr. Quentin 
>>> Young,
>>> national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program and a
>>> past president of the American Public Health Association. "There is 
>>> now an
>>> affordable cure for our dysfunctional health care system. In the face of
>>> our present economic calamity, this is an urgent necessity."
>>>
>>> Highlights of the bill include the following:
>>>
>>> * Patients go to any doctor or hospital of their choice.
>>>
>>> * The program is paid for by combining current sources of government
>>> health spending into a single fund with modest new taxes amounting to 
>>> less
>>> than what people now pay for insurance premiums and out-of-pocket
>>> expenses.
>>>
>>> * Comprehensive benefits, including coverage for dental, mental health,
>>> and prescription drugs.
>>>
>>> * While federally funded, the program is to be administered by the 
>>> states.
>>>
>>> * By eliminating the high overhead and profits of the private,
>>> investor-owned insurance industry, along with the burdensome paperwork
>>> imposed on physicians, hospitals and other providers, the plan saves at
>>> least $400 billion annually -- enough money to provide comprehensive,
>>> quality care to all.
>>>
>>> * Community health centers are fully funded, giving the 60 million
>>> Americans now living in rural and underserved areas access to care.
>>>
>>> * To address the critical shortage of primary care physicians and
>>> dentists, the bill provides resources for the National Health Service
>>> Corps to train an additional 24,000 health professionals.
>>>
>>> "We are confident that Sen. Sanders' bill will accelerate the national
>>> drive for the only reform that we know will work," Young said. "A 
>>> majority
>>> of physicians endorse such an approach. Fifty-nine percent of U.S.
>>> physicians support national health insurance. Two-thirds of the public
>>> also supports such a remedy. We remember well that President Obama once
>>> acknowledged that single-payer national health insurance was the best 
>>> way
>>> to go. It still is."
>>>
>>> Sanders, who serves on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor,
>>> and Pensions, is a longtime advocate of fundamental health care reform.
>>> His new bill draws heavily upon the single-payer legislation 
>>> introduced by
>>> the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) in 1993, S. 491, and closely
>>> parallels similar legislation pending before the House, H.R. 1200,
>>> introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.).
>>>
>>> A single-payer bill introduced by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), H.R.
>>> 676, obtained 93 co-sponsors in the House during the last session. It 
>>> has
>>> been reintroduced in the new Congress as the U.S. National Health 
>>> Care Act
>>> with the same bill number.
>>>
>>> A copy of the bill is available here:
>>> www.pnhp.org/PDF_files/American-Health-Security-Act-single-payer.pdf 
>>> (PDF)
>>>
>>> ###
>>>
>>> Physicians for a National Health Program, a membership organization 
>>> of over
>>> 16,000 physicians, supports a single-payer national health insurance 
>>> program.
>>> To contact a physician-spokesperson in your area, call (312) 782-6006 
>>> or visit
>>> www.pnhp.org/stateactions.
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>>> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss
>>>
>>>
>>
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