Mark Dunlea
Mark Dunlea

Faith Groups Say the Health Care for All is A Moral Right

Forum Shows Support for a national single payer, Medicare for All health care system

(Albany) The Presbyterian Church joined today with local community, labor and medical groups to sponsor a Congressional Town Hall forum in Albany in support of a single payer health care system that would provide health care to all Americans regardless of the economic or employment status.

The keynote speaker was Congressman John Conyers (D-Michigan), the lead sponsor of HR 676, the US National Health Care Act, Single Payer Medicare. The bill, which would replace private health insurance with a single public financing system to provide comprehensive coverage for everyone in the nation, has the most support of any universal health care proposal now in Congress. It also is the plan that is most favored by the American public, doctors, nurses and researchers.

Congressman Conyers participated in the recent White House Forum on Health Care to advocate for Single Payer Health Care. He stated, "serious reform of the health care system is the first step towards economic recovery. I am pleased to take part in this critical discussion on health care reform with the President, medical professionals, healthcare scholars, patients' advocates, and labor leaders. Those who have been working so tenaciously for single-payer reform to our health care system will finally have their voices heard. Our goal: quality health care for all."

Single payer legislation is also pending in both houses of the NYS Legislature and a state study on various universal health care options is due shortly after the budget is released. A majority of Assembly members and a majority of Democratic Senators have sponsored single payer legislation; Gov. Paterson was a sponsor as a member of the State Senate. A state funded study on various universal health care options is due shortly after the budget is released.

The Town Hall Meeting, sponsored by the Albany Presbytery, is one of ten nationwide meetings funded by the Presbyterian Church USA to open discussion of Single Payer Health Care for the United States. A major focus of the event was the moral right of all Americans to have health care. Faith representatives include Rev. Cass Shaw, the General Presbyter of the Albany Presbytery; Chandlee Gill of the Albany Presbytery, Dr. Richard Propp of the B'nai Sholom Reform Congregation (Albany) and Yussouf Mir of the Islamic Center of the Capital District.

Co Sponsors of the event included: Albany Presbytery, Capital Area Council of Churches, Interdenominational Ministers Conference, Fifth Avenue AME Zion Church of Troy, Labor Religion Coalition of NY State, Single Payer New York, Capital District Area Labor Federation, Capital District Alliance for Universal Health Care, Solidarity Committee of Program (PNHP) Capital District Chapter, Albany Medical College Student PNHP Chapter, Hunger Action Network of NYS and Faith and Hunger Network

The groups urged President Obama and Congress to reject a Massachusetts style plan that mandates that individuals purchase health insurance.

"America deserves the health benefits offered to the people of every other country in the industrialized world, all medically necessary care and freedom from the fear of economic ruin due to illness. The bottom line is that single payer is the one proposal that guarantees quality, affordable health care to every American. This would also be a great benefit to our economy in our time of crisis, helping to control costs for taxpayers, consumers and employers," said Mike Keenan, President of the Troy Area Labor Council.

Single payer merely means that one program pays all bills, like Medicare does for senior citizens. It eliminates the paperwork, high administrative costs and profits of the for profit private insurance system. An article in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded the single payer approach would save $350 billion a year in costs; somewhat smaller savings estimates have been made by the Congressional Budget Office. A study done for the State of California estimated that a state single payer plan would reduce health costs by $38 billion annually over a ten-year period.

President-elect Obama has also been a supporter of single payer health care in the past and touted its benefits during his election campaign. While he said recently that he would enact single payer if he were "starting from scratch," he has so far failed to put the issue on the table as part of his forums on health care.

The federal single payer bill (HR 676) has gained the support of 94 representatives in the last session of the US House, 480 union bodies, 39 state AFL-CIO's (including NY's), 117 Central Labor Councils, 20 international unions, the US Conference of Mayors, the Houses of Representatives in Kentucky, New Hampshire and NY (State Assembly), and hundreds more cities, counties, faith groups and organizations. Cong. Tonko is a sponsor in the new session. (72 sponsors have re-signed in Congress this session, with more being added every week. NY sponsors so far include Clarke, Engel, Hinchey, Maloney, Massa, Meeks, Nadler, Tonko, Velazquez).

A recent national survey by Indiana University of 2,193 doctors found almost 60% in favor of national health insurance (NHI) -- a 10 percent increase in support since 2002. A March 2007 poll by CBS/ NY Times found that 64 percent of respondents said the government should guarantee health insurance for all; 27 percent said it should not. An overwhelming majority in the poll said the health care system needed fundamental change or total reorganization.

"America's health care system is in deep trouble. Nearly 50 million Americans are currently without health insurance, more than 75 million went without insurance for some length of time within the past two years, and tens of millions more have inadequate coverage. More than 18,000 Americans die annually due to a lack of insurance," stated Mark Dunlea, Executive Director of the Hunger Action Network of NYS. A 2008 study published in the journal Health Affairs concluded that as many as 101,000 deaths a year could be prevented by ensuring that all patients receive quality care in a timely manner.

The U. S. spends 16% of gross domestic product (GDP) on health care ($7,129 per capita), twice what any other industrialized nation spends, yet ranks 37th in performance according to the World Health Organization. We lag behind other industrialized countries in life expectancy and infant mortality. Health care bills cause over 50% of bankruptcies and three out of four of those bankrupted by medical bills had health insurance.

The reason the US spends more and gets less than the rest of the world is because we have a patchwork system of for-profit payers. Private insurers necessarily waste health dollars on things that have nothing to do with care: overhead, underwriting, billing, sales and marketing departments as well as huge profits and exorbitant executive pay. Doctors and hospitals must maintain costly administrative staffs to deal with the bureaucracy. Combined, this needless administration consumes one-third (31 percent) of Americans' health dollars.

The groups urged President-elect Obama to reject the idea of mandating that individuals purchase insurance. The recent insurance mandate in Massachusetts is already running into problems due to higher taxpayer costs than anticipated; inadequate coverage being offered; and many residents deciding to pay the penalty rather than buying insurance they can't afford.

"We've done many experiments tweaking private health insurance. It doesn't work. Two decades of state level reform efforts have demonstrated that mandate plans don't reduce costs or the number of uninsured. They add bureaucracy and regulation, not healthcare value. We've done an experiment with national health insurance. It works. Medicare is not perfect, but Americans with Medicare are happier with their insurance than those with private insurance. Doctors have less hassle getting paid by Medicare than by private insurers," added Dr. Paul Sorum, Chairperson of the Capital District chapter of the Physicians for a National Health Program.

Variants of the mandate model, first proposed by Richard Nixon, were passed with great fanfare in Massachusetts (1988), Oregon (1989) and Washington State (1993). All failed. As costs soared, legislators backed off from enforcing the mandates or funding new coverage for the poor. Massachusetts' recent reform, which largely excuses employers from the mandate but imposes steep fines on the uninsured, appears poised to follow a similar path. Of the middle-income uninsured that are required to pay the full premium for coverage, few have signed up. Meanwhile, the state has already announced a $147 million shortfall in funding for subsidies for the poor.

"We can't afford to include bloated administrative overhead and profit in universal coverage. Administrative costs in the for-profit health insurance system consume nearly one-third of our health care spending. We will never have enough money to provide everyone with decent care until we eliminate private insurance, the main source of waste and inadequate coverage," said Dr. Richard Propp, Chair of the Capital District Alliance for Universal Health Care. "Single payer reduces administrative costs and provides an infrastructure to supports chronic disease management, an emphasis on primary care and the use of electronic medical records. The fragmented private insurance system created the perverse incentives that have set us so far behind other countries in these areas. Mandate proposals preserve the fragmentation," Propp concluded.

Under a single-payer system, all Americans would be covered for all medically necessary services, including: doctor, hospital, long-term care, mental health, dental, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs. Patients would regain free choice of doctor and hospital, and doctors would regain autonomy over patient care.

Physicians would be paid fee-for-service according to a negotiated formulary or receive salary from a hospital or nonprofit HMO / group practice. Hospitals would receive a global budget for operating expenses. Health facilities and expensive equipment purchases would be managed by regional health planning boards.

A single-payer system would be financed by eliminating private insurers and recapturing their administrative waste. Modest new taxes would replace premiums and out-of-pocket payments currently paid by individuals and business. Costs would be controlled through negotiated fees, global budgeting and bulk purchasing.

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