Tonight's (Tuesday, July 21, at 11:30 pm EDT) Colbert Report will have Dr. Aaron Carroll talking about single-payer health reform.
Dr. Carroll is a board member of Physicians for a National Health Program, an organization of 16,000 physicians, medical students and health professionals who support single-payer national health insurance.
Dr. Carroll, who is an assistant professor of pediatrics in the Children’s Health Services Research Program at the Indiana University School of Medicine, published a study last year showing 59 percent of U.S. physicians now support national health insurance, a jump of 10 percentage points from just five years earlier.
In an opinion piece, Dr. Carroll writes:
"There are now more uninsured people in the United States than at any time since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in the mid-1960s... These numbers represent extraordinary suffering, unnecessary disability and premature deaths — at least 18,000 deaths per year, according to the Institute of Medicine.
There is one sure-fire way to make these numbers come down. It worked for seniors in the 1960s and it still works for them today. You may hear politicians demonizing government-run health insurance, but you will hear none run on a platform of eradicating Medicare; nor will any turn it down for themselves when they turn 65. Call it whatever you want: National health insurance, Medicare-for-all, ‘single payer’ or socialized health insurance; it doesn’t matter. Research shows that Medicare-for-all could save enough on administrative waste (over $350 billion) to cover all the 47 million uninsured and improve coverage for everyone else. A single-payer national health insurance system is the only way to drop the number of people lacking health insurance to zero.
According to numerous independent analytic studies by government entitites such as the GAO and CBO and private ecnometric groups like Lewin and Mathematica, single-payer would really control and reduce total costs of health care in American and make it more affordable for all of us... unlike all other current proposals. It is the dependence on the private for-profit insurance companies, and the secondary fall-out from that, that is what makes the the current American system exceptionally over-priced and under-performing. And we know how to do better.
By the way, in addition to Dr. Carroll's and other studies showing support among physicians, it is also a fact that a majority of the American people also support tax-supported Medicar for All or Single Payer accroding to numerous polls, and those who say otherwise are simply not telling the truth:
According to an independent mainstream media poll by Associated Press and Yahoo in December 2007:
Question 14. Which comes closest to your view?
"The United States should continue the current health insurance system in which most people get their health insurance from private employers, but some people have no insurance."
34% - Yes
"The United States should adopt a universal health insurance program in which everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that is run by the government and financed by taxpayers."
65% - Yes
2% - Refused / Not Answered
Question 15. Do you consider yourself a supporter of a single-payer health care system, that is a national health plan financed by taxpayers in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan, or not?
54% - Yes
44% - No
2% - Refused / Not Answered
Full original report and results at this .pdf
From the more recent Grove Insight Opinion Research (.pdf):
"When given a choice of the current system or one "like Medicare that is run by the government and financed by taxpayers," voters overwhelmingly chose the latter. A solid majority (59%) say they would prefer a national health insurance program that covers everyone, over the current system of private insurance offered to most through their emloyer."
Indeed going back to Oct. 2003 there was Washington Post/ABC News Poll that asked the same question (Question 49; full report .pdf):
Which would you prefer – (the current health insurance system in the United States, in which most people get their health insurance from private employers, but some people have no insurance); or (a universal health insurance program, in which everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that's run by the government and financed by taxpayers?)
62% = Universal
33% = Current
6% = No opinion
I would suggest that this shows that there has been a pretty stable 54-65% support for universal tax-based "expanded and improved Medicare for All" single payer.
Notice that none of these is asking about a public option that allows some people to buy into a pubilc option with via an out of pocket premium, while mandating that most people buy from private for-profit insurance companies. That poll has not been done. Polls that describe public option as Medicre-like are piggy backing on the support for Medicare and "Expanded and Improved Medicare for All" but are disengenuous at best given that the plans actually call for the public option to be individual-buyer premium-based (not universal tax based) and limited in their availability and ability to compete. Harrumph. What the beltway actually plans to pass has very little to with the wording offered in the polls showing support for public option. I am concerend that when folks find out what they are getting, that they are going to be similarly pissed. I am all for getting the best reform we can get. Just no need to lie about what the American people would or would not support. This has to be how government works, not what American want (or the 20 years of groundwork by single payer activists being ignored or lied about).
Rep. John Conyers Jr. has introduced a bill in the House, H.R. 676, that would implement a single-payer system; the bill now has 85 co-sponsors. Recently Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced a single-payer bill in the U.S. Senate, S. 703.
HR-676 would institute a single payer health care system by expanding a greatly improved Medicare system to everyone residing in the U.S. HR-6766 would cover every person for all necessary medical care including prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary and preventive care, emergency services, dental, mental health, home health, physical therapy, rehabilitation (including for substance abuse), vision care, hearing services including hearing aids, chiropractic, durable medical equipment, palliative care, and long term care. HR-676 ends deductibles and co-payments. HR-676 would save hundreds of billions annually by eliminating the high overhead and profits of the private health insurance industry and HMOs.
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) will introduce, now probably on Wednesday, in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, an amendment to the Tri-Committee health care bill. The amendment would replace the private health insurance industry with a single-payer national health insurance program. In effect, the Weiner amendment would substitute HR-676, for the current Tri-Committee legislation.
The episode with Dr. Carroll will also be available online about 24 hours after the initial broadcast (episode #5097). And the usual rebroadcasts on the Comedy Central network on Wednesday, July 22, at 2 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 2 p.m., and 8:30 p.m. This episode was probably not bought (sic) to you by Prescott Pharmaceuticals.