Many professional lobbyists have actually served in Congress and are experienced in writing and passing legislation. These people actually compose the legislation designed to favor and enrich the health insurance industry. This legislation is then sponsored by congressional members who are recipients of health insurance political contributions.
Congressional Members have Universal Health Care
Unlike the rest of the U.S. public, members of Congress have a sweetheart health insurance plan. After a single term in office, a member of Congress is entitled to a lifetime government health insurance plan with no deductibles, no limitations, no provider panels, and no prior approvals. Physicians are paid their usual and customary fees guaranteeing the highest paid health care available, a form of universal health care for congressional members. What about the rest of the country? Don’t all Americans deserve this?
Recently we witnesses the spectacle of Congress passing legislation which legalized a 700 billion dollar donation to criminal excess on wall street. What about universal health care for Americans? If we had a representative government, we would have had a single payer system years ago. The truth of the matter is that our government represents the special interests of the health insurance industry and other corporate lobbyists, not the people.
Bill HR 676 Proposed by John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich
"The leading legislative proposal for a U.S. single-payer system is H.R. 676, introduced in 2007 by Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, and co-sponsored by 91 Members of Congress. Over 5,000 U.S. physicians have signed an open letter calling on the candidates for president and Congress “to stand up for the health of the American people and implement a nonprofit, single-payer national health insurance system." (quoted from Steffie Woolhandler)
Two American Heroes of Bill HR 676
John Conyers Dennis Kucinich
Steffie Woolhandler MD
Interview with Steffie Woolhandler of Physicians for a National Health Program, associate professor of medicine at Harvard University:
"Private health insurance is a defective product. On one hand, you may lose it when you need it most — when you get sick. On the other hand, even if you are able to hold onto private insurance, the gaps in the coverage mean that you may be bankrupted anyway.
A key reason is that the private health insurance industry imposes massive administrative costs on the healthcare system. Administrative costs in U.S. healthcare are about 31 percent of total health spending. In nations with single payer national health insurance, the overhead costs are about 16.5 percent of spending. The possible administrative savings in going from a multipayer system to a single payer system are about $350 billion annually. That means that by going from the current multipayer, private insurance-dominated system to a nonprofit single-payer system, you have a built-in cost savings of about $350 billion.
If single payer faces the serious political obstacles that come from calling for wiping out the private health insurance system, are there incremental things that can be done to take us in that direction?
The only incremental thing that one can do that makes any sense at all would be placing all hospital care into a single payer system as a first step, and then later placing other types of care into a single payer system. That’s what happened in Saskatchewan. They initially enacted a single payer system that covered all the hospitals and then a few years later enacted a single payer system that covered everything.
Every industrialized country except the United States has some version of a single-payer healthcare system. Private insurance that covers services covered by the national program would be forbidden, although private insurance would be available to insure patients for services not covered under the national program.
The leading legislative proposal for a U.S. single-payer system is H.R. 676, introduced in 2007 by Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, and co-sponsored by 91 Members of Congress....
Over 5,000 U.S. physicians have signed an open letter calling on the candidates for president and Congress “to stand up for the health of the American people and implement a nonprofit, single-payer national health insurance system.” endquote.
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