FAQ
1. What is a Medicare-for-All (Single Payer) healthcare system?
Single payer national health insurance is a system in which a single agency (typically the government) organizes health financing, but delivery of care remains largely private by doctors.
We currently have a multiple payer system – the 1,000+ private insurance companies that pay doctors and hospitals. Under single payer, we remove private insurance companies and end the practice of for-profit health care in this country.
2. Why is Medicare-for-All (Single Payer) the moral choice for our healthcare system?
We believe that healthcare is a human right. It’s a moral choice to cover everyone. Single payer is the only way to cover everyone – because it is automatic for all Americans from birth to death. Here are President Obama’s words to this effect in his speech to the nation on July 22, 2009:
When asked about the approximately two percent of Americans that will be left uncovered by the Democrats’ plan, Obama said,
“I want to cover everybody. Now, the truth is unless you have what’s called a single-payer system in which everyone’s automatically covered, you’re probably not going to reach every single individual.”
From a spiritual perspective, you might ask, Who would Jesus, Allah, Buddha, etc. deny health care insurance to?
3. How does Medicare-for-All (Single Payer) help costs?
With every American in one huge risk pool, we can accomplish several things.
a) We can get rid of private insurance companies and their wasteful administrative costs (advertising, huge CEO salaries, shareholder profits, etc…) of approximately $400 billion per year. Medicare’s overhead is only 5-7% compared to 15-30% for private insurance companies.
b) We will have tremendous negotiating power with providers and drug companies to keep costs down.
c) Malpractice costs are reduced under single payer. About one-half of all malpractice awards go to pay present and future medical costs (e.g. for infants born with serious disabilities). Single payer insurance would eliminate the need for these awards. Also, since many claims arise from a lack of communication between the doctor and patient, this is reduced under single payer because of the continuity of care allowed under in this system.
4. How does Single Payer compare to the Public Option?
The public option preserves the private insurance companies and their drive to fight claims, issue denials, screen out the sick and make big profits – all of which generate huge administrative waste: $400 billion per year.
The public option won’t cover everyone. The latest estimate is that millions (yes, millions!) of people will still lack health insurance under this plan.
Even with strict regulations, we know from prior experience that private insurance companies will find a way to stop insuring the sick and costly. Those people will then have to purchase insurance from the public option. Eventually, the public option will be full of unprofitably ill Americans and become too costly to maintain.
A public plan option does not lead toward single payer, but toward the segregation of patients; with profitable ones in private plans and unprofitable ones in the public plan.
5. What federal legislation is proposed for this type of healthcare system?
a) U.S. House of Representatives. HR 676 “US National Health Insurance Act” and or “Expanded and Improved Medicare For All Act”. This bill was introduced by John Conyers (D-MI) and there are currently 86 co-sponsors of this bill in the 111th Congress. For the text of the bill, co-sponsors, endorsements, how it would be paid for, etc., see http://johnconyers.com/healthcare
b) U.S. Senate. S703 “The American Health Security Act.” This is a comprehensive single-payer bill, though not a direct companion bill to HR 676. It was introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT). For more information click Health Care Now