National Health Insurance In America, Part 1

President Clinton did not and now President Bushnow paid for. The child's mother had receipts, and
will not address health care reform in a way thatthe HMO reimbursed her from the time of the
deviates even slightly from the HMO and Managedcar accident.
Care Industries that have given large sums ofI wondered why the insurance company did not
money to both campaigns to keep them quiet.automatically pay for these services? If I had not
Thus these special interests maintain the statushelped stage an elaborate fund raising event and
quo of the for profit health insurance corporationshad dinner with the boy's grandmother, this
that have taken over the health care system inrevelation may not have surfaced. A Universal
America.Single Payer health care plan would make it
Every day, approximately 100,000 people losepossible for all people to get the services they
health insurance coverage in the United States.need and free up doctors and nurses to give the
Over forty-four million Americans do not havecare that people deserve, plus fulfill all of the
health insurance at all. The people who havereasons doctors and nurses entered their
HMO's as their only choice of insurance routinelyrespective professions to begin with: to be of
face rejection of payment when serious healthservice, to help other people and to bring healing
problems arise. The doctors employed by HMO'sto patients and their families.
make decisions about a person's health withoutPhysicians for a National Health Program in
laying hands on the patient. They do not examine,America have devised the following plan for
listen to or have any contact with the patientimplementation. For more information, please
about whom life and death decisions are madeaccess
regarding their health.National Health Insurance, if implemented, would
This is a human rights abuse in a civil society suchminimize any disruption to the current health
as ours, or any other society, for that matter.system because health care delivery mechanisms
There are over 1500 insurance companies inwould remain in place while only the financing
America with different rules of what services willmechanism changed. Single Payer National Health
or will not be funded. Our facility has hired twoInsurance would resolve virtually all of the major
people just to handle the health insuranceproblems facing America's health care system,
questions that arise every day. They often havetoday.
a frustrated and perplexed look in their eyes asSingle Payer Insurance is defined as a single
they undertake to find solutions to problems, andgovernment fund with each state which pays
then have to contact a faceless bureaucratichospitals, physicians and other health care
entity about whether or not a service will be paidproviders, thus replacing the current multi-payer
for.system of private insurance companies and other
Health care providers must also take the time toplans.
speak to these people, to convince them to payIt would provide coverage for the forty-four
for proposed services. Letters must be written tomillion people who are uninsured.
convince the HMO/Managed Care bureaucrats toIt would eliminate the financial threat and impaired
take a second look at what needs to be done foraccess to care for tens of millions who do not
patients, to ensure good quality medical care.have coverage and are unable to afford the
Health care workers have accepted theout-of-pocket expenses because of deficiencies in
unacceptable and do not seem to know the waytheir insurance plans.
out of the quagmire.It would return to the patient free choice of
I once helped to raise $3,000.00 for a seven yearhealth care provider and hospitals, not the choice
old patient who was in an automobile accident,that only the restrictive health plans allow.
and suffered a lower spinal cord injury. He isIt would relieve businesses of the administrative
paralyzed from the waist down. The proposedhassle and expense of maintaining a health
goal for the fund raiser was to buy a handicappedbenefits program.
accessible van. Since these vans cost anywhereIt would remove from the health care equation
from $15-30,000.00 dollars, the family bought athe middleman-the managed care industry-that
computer, instead, enrolled the boy in a studyhas broken the traditional doctor-patient
offered online by the Shreiner's Hospital inrelationship, while diverting outrageous amounts of
Philadelphia for spinal cord injured patients.patient care dollars to their own coffers.
At the fund raising dinner, I sat with the patient'sIt would control health care inflation through
grandmother. She told me she wanted the moneyconstructive mechanisms of cost containment
to be put in a trust fund to pay for the child'sthat improve allocation of our health care
catheter supplies, diapers and medicine that theresources, rather than controlling costs through an
Managed Care Insurance company would not payimpersonal business ethic that robs patients of
for.care so as to increase profits for the privileged
"Wait a minute," I said. "You mean you are payingfew. Single PayerUniversal Health Care would
for all of the supplies out of pocket withoutprovide access to high quality care for everyone
insurance reimbursement?"at affordable prices. This would be beneficial for
"Yes," she said.individual business as well as the government.
Back in the office the following week, one of theSo why don't we have a National Single Payer
women whose job it is to deal with insurancePlan?
questions, solved the dilemma and the supplies are