For Patients, Not for ProfitsA Single-Payer National Health Insurance Program(HR 676) :For Patients, Not for ProfitsA Single-Payer National Health Insurance Program(HR 676) www.SiCKOCure.org
www.pnhp.org
Slide 2 :United States:
46 Million Uninsured But simply covering them with existing policies is not a solution.
Slide 3 :America’s Underinsured Proportion of Americans Going Without Care due to Costs, 2005
(skipping doctor visit, specialist appointment, treatment or prescription when needed) Source: Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey, 2005
Slide 4 :Medical Bankruptcy Illness and Medical Bills Contribute to HALF of all Bankruptcies. Source: Himmelstein, Health Affairs 2005 (state estimates provided by author) Of those, more than three-quarters had insurance when they got sick. Insurance Status at Onset of Illness
Slide 5 :Rising Costs = Fewer Benefits = Under/Uninsurance Proportion of Americans Covered by Employer Insurance Source: US Census
Slide 6 :What Does This Mean? Lesson #1: Simply Expanding Existing Private Insurance Policies Is Not a Solution. Current Private Insurance Policies Offer Inadequate Protection.
Any Gains in Coverage Will Be Quickly Offset as Costs Rise and Employers Shed Benefits.
Slide 7 :What Does This Mean? Lesson #2: Any Real Solution to the Health Crisis Must Do Two Things: 1) Offer Coverage More Comprehensive than that Currently Available on the Private Market. 2) Control Costs so that Benefits are Sustainable.
Slide 8 :Life Expectancy, 2003 (Data in Years) Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Slide 9 :Infant Mortality, 2003 (Deaths in first year of life per 1,000 live births) Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Slide 10 :International Health Spending U.S. Public Spending is Greater than Other Nations’ Public/Private Spending Combined Per Capita Health Spending, 2004 Source: OECD 2004; Japan and Germany data are from 2003
Insurance Companies = Paperwork Waste :Insurance Companies = Paperwork Waste Billing
Marketing
Underwriting
Co-Payment Processing
Eligibility Determinations
Utilization Reviews
Provider Administrative Staff
Employer Benefit Administration
Slide 12 :Growth of Physicians and Administrators 1970-2005 Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics and NCHS
One-Third of Health Spending is Consumed by Administration :One-Third of Health Spending is Consumed by Administration 31% Potential Savings: $350 billion per year
Enough to Provide Comprehensive Coverage to Everyone Source: Woolhandler, et al, New England Journal of Medicine, August 2003 & Int. Jrnl. Of Hlth. Services, 2004
Financing Single-Payer :Medicare Medicaid Payroll Tax Income Tax Single-Payer Health Care Fund
$$$ Financing Single-Payer Bonus: Negotiated formulary with physicians, global budget for hospitals, increased primary and preventive care, reduction in unnecessary high-tech interventions, bulk purchasing of drugs and medical supplies =
long term cost control.
Single-Payer Benefits :Single-Payer Benefits Comprehensive Coverage for all medically necessary services (doctor, hospital, long-term care, mental health, vision, dental, drug, etc.) in a single-tier system.
Free Choice of doctor and hospital.
Health Workers Unleashed from corporate dictates over patient care.
Hospitals guaranteed a secure, regular budget.
Only Two Paths to Reform :Only Two Paths to Reform Preserve Private Insurance Companies and their Waste
Create a National Health Insurance System
“Save the Insurance Companies”A Bipartisan Consensus :“Save the Insurance Companies”A Bipartisan Consensus Private Insurance Tax Credits National Health Program
Subsidy and Individual Mandate Schemes(The Edwards and Obama Plans) :Subsidy and Individual Mandate Schemes(The Edwards and Obama Plans) Substandard Coverage: forces the uninsured to buy defective insurance industry products that are already causing families to face bankruptcy and go without needed care.
Unaffordable: Without the savings achievable with single-payer, taxes must raised or funds diverted from other needy programs.
Micro-coverage, Macro-costs: Preserves wasteful private insurers and adds yet another layer of state administrative waste. Rather than provide care to the uninsured through a relatively efficient program like Medicare, the plan launders tax dollars through wasteful private insurers.
No Realistic Cost Control: Any gains in public coverage will be unsustainable due to rising costs.
“Sounds Great, but it’s not politically feasible” :“Sounds Great, but it’s not politically feasible” 2/3rds of population want it
Many (probably most) physicians want it
Business community is now realizing the need for it
Slide 20 :“If done right, health care in America could be dramatically better with true single-payer coverage.”
-Ben Brewer, WSJ, April 18, 2006 “[single-payer] is an idea that's so easy to slam politically yet so sensible for business that only Republicans can sell it! …it may take a Republican President to bless the socialization of health spending we need.”
-Matt Miller, Fortune, April 18, 2006 “Think, as a small business, how you could benefit from a single-payer system: you wouldn’t lose potential employees to larger firms that offer more attractive health benefits; health insurance costs would cease to be a line item in your budget. A serious illness befalling you or an employee wouldn’t be a company-wide financial crisis. You might even save money.”
-Joseph Antony, CNBC / MSN Money, Winter 2003 CNBC / MSN Money
“A Step Towards Universal Coverage”or The Definition of Insanity?Other States That Have Taken “Steps” :“A Step Towards Universal Coverage”or The Definition of Insanity?Other States That Have Taken “Steps” Hawaii (1974) 82,000 116,000
Massachusetts (1988) 494,000 617,000
Oregon (1989) 400,000 578,000
Tennessee (1992) 687,000 835,000
Minnesota (1992) 350,000 430,000
Maine (2003) 133,000 142,000 Uninsured 2005 Uninsured at Time
Is “The Perfect the Enemy of the Good?”The Radical and the Republican :Is “The Perfect the Enemy of the Good?”The Radical and the Republican “Many of Lincoln’s admirers have painted him as a man who wanted exactly what the abolitionists did but cannily waited for a perfect moment to achieve it. [In fact], radicals like Douglass set an agenda Lincoln gradually adopted as his own. Without abolitionists, there would have been no Lincoln.”
- James Oakes, Historian, UC Berkeley
Single-Payer: “Politically Feasible?” :Single-Payer: “Politically Feasible?” Abolition of Human Slavery
(1600s)
Women’s Suffrage Movement
(1840-1920)
Civil Rights Act
(1964) Other “Politically Infeasible” Movements
What You Can Do :What You Can Do Join Up with the campaign for HR 676 at www.sickocure.org. Use the resources on the site to educate yourself, your family and your friends about the single-payer solution.
Sign the Citizens’ Petition for single-payer national health insurance (on the website).
Contact your Members of Congress to tell them you support HR 676, and they should too.
Write an Op-Ed or Letter to the Editor of your local paper. You can find tips, templates and examples at www.sickocure.org.
Bring Materials and Talk to your church, labor, community or other group about the single-payer solution. The SickoCure website includes sample resolutions that your group can endorse and a copy of this slideshow you can use.