Physician Group Supports Single Payer Health Care

Oct 09, 2008 by Faroe Robinson

(KCPW News by Faroe Robinson) Members of Physicians for a National Health Program are encouraging presidential candidates to support a single payer health care system. This week, they took out full page ads in the New Yorker and the Nation to promote their idea. Local member Clark Newhall explains that the system would be like an improved version of Medicare for everyone, where a single government agency pays for health care, but delivery of that care remains private.

"You have one huge risk pool, you don't divide people up by those who have preexisting illnesses. You have buying power. You have power to control the prices that you pay. You are not in competition with everybody else to get the best doctors at the cheapest price. You don't advertise, you don't risk manage, you don't underwrite, you just cover people," Newhall said.

Newhall says if hospitals and doctors could avoid administrative costs by not having to deal with co-payments, deductibles, and claims from private insurance companies, the savings would be more than $300 billion dollars. He adds that the loss of jobs in the private insurance sector is worth the sacrifice.

"I have faith that it would not be nearly as disruptive as the loss of life and income and the loss of financial stability that now afflicts us with the system in which we have $42 million people that don't have health insurance and $42.5 more million who do, but can't afford health care still," Newhall said.

Newhall says that incremental reforms like tax incentives and mandates are not the answer; he says the entire system needs to be fixed.

Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom. Copyright 2008 KCPW