PNHP Response to Bill, Good News - Bad News

[Guest guest]

Physicians for a National Health Program

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Physicians for a National Health Program

Monday, March 22, 2010 4:00 PM

PNHP Response to Bill, Updates, and More!

 

 

March 22, 2010

 

Dear PNHP colleagues and friends,

 

We have some good news and some bad news.

 

The bad news is that the president's health plan, which was drafted by the

insurance and pharmaceutical industries, will leave about 23 million Americans

uninsured and over 100 million Americans underinsured nine years after

implementation. PNHP's press release and a chart comparing the reconciliation

bill to single payer follow below. Activists are encouraged to send them to

their local media contacts and physician colleagues.

 

The good news is that there is growing awareness that the bill won't work,

and, sooner rather than later, we need single-payer national health insurance.

As noted by Harvard economist Dr. William Hsiao, the architect of Taiwan's

successful health reform, " You can have universal coverage and good quality

health care while still managing to control costs. But you have to have a

single-payer system to do it. "

 

What you can do:

 

1. Talk to the press. Please forward the following press release, chart,

and key PNHP research findings to your local media with a cover note that you

would be willing to be interviewed (if you are!).

 

2. Publish opinion pieces in the medical and lay press. Use the following

materials (recycle our prose as you wish!) for letters to the editor, op-eds,

and other articles. PNHP communications director Mark Almberg can help with

editing and submitting articles for publication. Mark

 

3. Deliver grand rounds, or invite a PNHP speaker. PNHP will have new

slides on health policy in the Obama era and the reconciliation bill soon.

Please contact Dave Howell at Dave if you would like a PNHP speaker or

would like a copy of our new slide set when it comes out.

 

Because of the enormous power of the insurance and drug companies, we in

PNHP have always known that ours is a long-term struggle. Of the women who

participated in the Seneca Falls convention, only two survived to see women win

the right to vote. Susan B. Anthony was not not one of them, but her final

words on her deathbed were " failure is impossible. " We agree.

 

In memory of the 45,000 Americans who die annually for lack of health

insurance, and in memory of the many tireless activists for single-payer

national health insurance and health care as a human right who died this year,

including Dr. Linda Farley, Dr. David Prensky, Dr. John Shearer, Dr. Bud

Goodrich, PNHP staffer Nicholas Skala, and others, PNHP will continue the

struggle.

 

With your help, failure is impossible.

 

In solidarity,

 

 

Quentin Young, MD

National Coordinator Ida Hellander, MD

Executive Director

 

--------

 

 

For Immediate Release Contact:

March 22, 2010 Oliver Fein, M.D.

Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H.

David Himmelstein, M.D.

Margaret Flowers, M.D.

Mark Almberg, PNHP, (312) 782-6006, mark

 

A false promise of reform

 

The following statement was released today by leaders of Physicians for a

National Health Program, www.pnhp.org. Their signatures appear below.

 

As much as we would like to join the celebration of the House's passage of

the health bill last night, in good conscience we cannot. We take no comfort in

seeing aspirin dispensed for the treatment of cancer.

 

Instead of eliminating the root of the problem - the profit-driven,

private health insurance industry - this costly new legislation will enrich and

further entrench these firms. The bill would require millions of Americans to

buy private insurers' defective products, and turn over to them vast amounts of

public money.

 

The hype surrounding the new health bill is belied by the facts:

 

* About 23 million people will remain uninsured nine years out. That

figure translates into an estimated 23,000 unnecessary deaths annually and an

incalculable toll of suffering.

 

* Millions of middle-income people will be pressured to buy commercial

health insurance policies costing up to 9.5 percent of their income but covering

an average of only 70 percent of their medical expenses, potentially leaving

them vulnerable to financial ruin if they become seriously ill. Many will find

such policies too expensive to afford or, if they do buy them, too expensive to

use because of the high co-pays and deductibles.

 

* Insurance firms will be handed at least $447 billion in taxpayer money

to subsidize the purchase of their shoddy products. This money will enhance

their financial and political power, and with it their ability to block future

reform.

 

* The bill will drain about $40 billion from Medicare payments to

safety-net hospitals, threatening the care of the tens of millions who will

remain uninsured.

 

* People with employer-based coverage will be locked into their plan's

limited network of providers, face ever-rising costs and erosion of their health

benefits. Many, even most, will eventually face steep taxes on their benefits as

the cost of insurance grows.

 

* Health care costs will continue to skyrocket, as the experience with the

Massachusetts plan (after which this bill is patterned) amply demonstrates.

 

* The much-vaunted insurance regulations - e.g. ending denials on the

basis of pre-existing conditions - are riddled with loopholes, thanks to the

central role that insurers played in crafting the legislation. Older people can

be charged up to three times more than their younger counterparts, and large

companies with a predominantly female workforce can be charged higher

gender-based rates at least until 2017.

 

* Women's reproductive rights will be further eroded, thanks to the

burdensome segregation of insurance funds for abortion and for all other medical

services.

 

It didn't have to be like this. Whatever salutary measures are contained

in this bill, e.g. additional funding for community health centers, could have

been enacted on a stand-alone basis.

 

Similarly, the expansion of Medicaid - a woefully underfunded program that

provides substandard care for the poor - could have been done separately, along

with an increase in federal appropriations to upgrade its quality.

 

But instead the Congress and the Obama administration have saddled

Americans with an expensive package of onerous individual mandates, new taxes on

workers' health plans, countless sweetheart deals with the insurers and Big

Pharma, and a perpetuation of the fragmented, dysfunctional, and unsustainable

system that is taking such a heavy toll on our health and economy today.

 

This bill's passage reflects political considerations, not sound health

policy. As physicians, we cannot accept this inversion of priorities. We seek

evidence-based remedies that will truly help our patients, not placebos.

 

A genuine remedy is in plain sight. Sooner rather than later, our nation

will have to adopt a single-payer national health insurance program, an improved

Medicare for all. Only a single-payer plan can assure truly universal,

comprehensive and affordable care to all.

 

By replacing the private insurers with a streamlined system of public

financing, our nation could save $400 billion annually in unnecessary, wasteful

administrative costs. That's enough to cover all the uninsured and to upgrade

everyone else's coverage without having to increase overall U.S. health spending

by one penny.

 

Moreover, only a single-payer system offers effective tools for cost

control like bulk purchasing, negotiated fees, global hospital budgeting and

capital planning.

 

Polls show nearly two-thirds of the public supports such an approach, and

a recent survey shows 59 percent of U.S. physicians support government action to

establish national health insurance. All that is required to achieve it is the

political will.

 

The major provisions of the present bill do not go into effect until 2014.

Although we will be counseled to " wait and see " how this reform plays out, we

cannot wait, nor can our patients. The stakes are too high.

 

We pledge to continue our work for the only equitable, financially

responsible and humane remedy for our health care mess: single-payer national

health insurance, an expanded and improved Medicare for All.

 

 

Oliver Fein, M.D.

President Garrett Adams, M.D.

President-elect Claudia Fegan, M.D.

Past President

 

 

Margaret Flowers, M.D.

Congressional Fellow David Himmelstein, M.D.

Co-founder Steffie Woolhandler, M.D.

Co-founder

 

Quentin Young, M.D.

National Coordinator

Don McCanne, M.D.

Senior Health Policy Fellow

 

 

 

******

Physicians for a National Health Program (www.pnhp.org) is an organization

of 17,000 doctors who support single-payer national health insurance. To speak

with a physician/spokesperson in your area, visit www.pnhp.org/stateactions or

call (312) 782-6006.

 

 

 

 

Physicians for a National Health Program

29 E Madison Suite 602, Chicago, IL 60602

Phone (312) 782-6006 | Fax: (312) 782-6007

www.pnhp.org | info

© PNHP 2010

 

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