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The healthcare delivery system in America is more than a crisis.  It is a source of national shame and international embarrassment. In spite of expenditures that more than double what most other industrialized nations pay per capita, we are ranked only 37th in the world by the World Health Organization in terms of longevity, infant mortality, fair access, and overall health maintenance. Recent census data show that 47 million Americans remain uninsured, with another 50 million inadequately protected against catastrophic illness. More than a quarter of the uninsured are between the ages of 19 and 29.  Three in five personal bankruptcies in this country are the result of medical bills, with 3/4 of these occurring in families who had insurance when illness struck. And, perhaps most shocking, the National Institute of Medicine reports that an estimated 45,000 Americans die needlessly each year simply because they can’t afford healthcare or are denied treatment by insurance companies despite living in a wealthy country.

The reason for this dismal failure is simple.  Under our current for-profit insurance system, more than 30% of all healthcare dollars are wasted on administrative costs (primarily aimed at avoiding insurance payouts), expensive advertising and marketing schemes, excessive corporate salaries, lobbying for legislative protection of the status quo, and stockholder profits. Despite ever-increasing premiums shared by employers and employees alike, 60% of all healthcare spending is currently paid by federal programs, and 20% is paid by individuals through co-pays and deductibles, leaving for-profit insurance companies responsible for only 20% of monies paid out while they collect billions from both business and individual policyholders. Insurance companies are free to avoid covering sick people, to deny coverage based on prior illness, and to earn enormous profits by insuring primarily the young and the healthy, while public programs struggle to care for the old and the sick.

The answer is equally simple: A single-payer, publicly funded, privately provided healthcare delivery system would cover all Americans, while eliminating administrative waste and duplication of services.  A single-payer system based on Medicare would be established by HR 676, The United States National Health Care Act, which has 85 Congressional cosponsors.  (The same bill had 93 cosponsors in the 110th Congress.)

Our friend J. C. Dufresne of Cibolo confronted much of the anti-single-payer rhetoric through his letter to the San Antonio Express-News:

Every day we hear the same healthcare myths from politicians and industry alike, but what are the facts?

Myth: We don't want a government-run healthcare system like Canada where it takes a year to get a hip replacement.

Fact: Some hospitals in some provinces take that long, but many if not most don't.  Let's assume hip replacements only have waiting lists of six weeks in the U.S.  Guess who pays for the vast majority?  None other than Medicare, the federally-run single-payer system.

Myth: If we have government-run healthcare, then healthcare will be rationed.

Fact: Healthcare is rationed now in the U.S. to a much greater degree than any other developed country.  It's just that it's rationed to who can pay rather than to who needs it most.

Myth: Government-run healthcare won't let you choose your doctors.

Fact: Private insurance companies don't let you choose your doctor.  If the doctor you wish to see isn't in your network, either you don't see him or you pay the bill yourself.

Myth: Government-run healthcare tells doctors which medications they can prescribe.

Fact: Private insurance already tells doctors which medications they can prescribe by limiting what they will pay or how high your co-pay will be.

Grassroots action is needed to make single-payer politically feasible, as HR 676 is stalled in Congressional committees due to the opposition and influence of big insurance and big pharmaceuticals. Supported by Physicians for a National Health Program and Healthcare-Now!, alongside a broad grassroots network of activists, faith-based organizations, labor, and professional groups, HR 676 would provide comprehensive health care coverage to all Americans while saving an estimated $317 billion annually. It does this by cutting out the middleman, eliminating duplication of coverage, improving and expanding the current Medicare system (which operates successfully with a 5% overhead), without excluding pre-existing conditions or limiting care, while preserving complete freedom of choice of healthcare providers and leaving all treatment decisions to the patient and chosen physician. Click Here to read more about HR 676.

The San Antonio Healthcare-Now Coalition is affiliated with the  national Healthcare-Now movement.  We are NOT affiliated with Health Care for America Now (HCAN).  Read about the difference between Healthcare-Now and HCAN here.