President Obama proposed a fairly modest healthcare reform. Now powerful lobbyists are swarming Washington urging lawmakers to gut his proposed healthcare plan. Without a public option, Obama's plan would give the healthcare insurance companies even more power and would likely make the system more expensive without ensuring that people actually got healthcare — just as we've seen with the Massachusetts plan. A well-implemented public option would challenge the insurance companies, but would still give them a major — and expensive — role in the system.
There is no reason to keep the healthcare insurance companies and their very expensive paperwork and bureacracy. The insurance companies provide nothing of real value and they are a major impediment to doctors, nurses, clinics, and hospitals actually provding healthcare to patients.
Follow me over the fold to see a letter I sent to President Obama.
Dear President Obama,
President Clinton tried to forge a compromise healthcare system that would include the healthcare insurance companies. Even though he bent over backwards to accomodate their needs and demands — which resulted in an expensive, complex, and very unappealing plan — the insurance companies still fought against his plan and killed it.
Now you are faced with a similar situation. Again the healthcare insurance companies are fighting against your modest proposal. If they have their way, they will either kill your effort at reform or water it down so much that it is expensive, bureaucratic, and inadequate — just as we've seen with the faltering Massachusetts program. If we end up with a system in which the federal government essentially just subsidizes the healthcare insurance industry as they extract massive profits from the system, then it will be a disaster: providing inadequate healthcare, continuing to exclude many needy patients, increasing paperwork and bureacracy, and costing even more.
Rather than trying to compromise with the leaders of the health insurance industry — who have proven that they will not work in good faith — I urge you to instead propose a single-payer healthcare system. A single-payer system has several major advantages over the current system and over your proposal that adds a public option. A single-payer system would:
- Allow patients complete freedom to go to any doctor or hospital in the country.
- Ensure everyone gets good healthcare: anyone could walk into any healthcare facility and be treated.
- Cut out massive amounts of bureacracy and paperwork. Since everyone would be treated, there would be no need for all the effort required to see if someone is eligible for healthcare.
- Allow doctors to focus on providing medical care instead of billing and insurance company payments. Doctors hate having to fight with the healthcare insurance companies and billing issues consume too much of their time.
- Cut out useless promotion, advertising, and high salaries in the healthcare field. Patients cannot make any kind of a rational decision to choose good doctors and hospitals. This is a perfect example of market failure and where strong peer and government regulation is required to ensure quality care and cut costs.
- Cut costs dramatically. Since a single-payer system cuts out massive amounts of healthcare insurance company bureacracy, the system will actually be cheaper than our current system even though it will cover more people — everyone.
Moreover, a single-payer system is very popular. Even though the news media has barely mentioned single-payer — much less explain how it would work and its advantages — a majority of the American public nevertheless supports it. Everyone has had bad experiences with the current system dominated by health insurance companies. No one believes that a system that continues to rely on these companies will operate well. In contrast, the Medicare and Veterans systems work pretty well. People see this and appreciate it.
I urge you to support a comprehensive and well-designed single-payer healthcare system. With your strong leadership appealing to the majority of Americans, we can pressure Congress to enact a good plan. Yes we can.