Rocky Anderson: Essential Health Care For All

Many high-quality health care systems exist that the United States can readily replicate.   There is not only one solution.   The United States should learn from the best among other nations.

Single-payer National Health Insurance systems provide excellent, timely basic health care, in a manner similar to Medicare in the U.S.   In those systems, medical providers are private, but the bills are paid by one government-run insurance program, toward which every citizen contributes.   Those systems are less expensive and more efficient because there is relatively little paperwork; there is no need for marketing; there are no underwriting personnel whose jobs are to deny claims; and there is no profit for shareholders.   

Multiple-payer systems utilize non-profit insurance companies providing mandated minimum levels of care for everyone, without exclusions for preexisting conditions .   Both providers and payers are private . Such systems are found in Germany , Japan , Belgium , Switzerland , and, in different variations, France (rated as the #1 health care system by the World Health Organization) and Latin America .  

In National Health Service systems -- known as the Beveridge Model -- health care is provided and financed by the government, through tax payments .   Many but not all hospitals and clinics are owned by the government and some doctors are government employees.   There are no medical bills.   Medical treatment is a public service , like the police department or public libraries.   In the U.S., the Beveridge Model is used by the Department of Veterans Affairs , which utilizes one of the purest models of socialized medicine and garners consistently high ratings in surveys of patient satisfaction.   These systems have low per capita costs because the government, as the sole payer, determines what doctors can do and what they can charge .   Supplemental insurance can be purchased.

Our nation needs strong leadership in many areas. Rocky Anderson never backs down on matters of crucial principle, such as health care.   He will expose the corruption that has frustrated the will of the American people and caused untold thousands of unnecessary deaths and illnesses.   He will foster a popular movement, with members of Congress feeling a heavy political price if they fail to provide a health care that is less expensive, more efficient, available to all, and which achieves better medical outcomes than we do now.

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