I’d been wondering what happened to all the voices for single-payer healthcare. Yesterday, the California Nurses Assn. and Progressive Democrats of America issued a statement reiterating their call for single-payer healthcare.
Not that single-payer stands a realistic chance — or any chance for that matter — of making it into reform legislation this time around. But one day it may. And as I said in a prior post, it should be part of the debate at the very least to help better frame the discussion.
The joint CNA/PDA press release says that all other reform proposals “suffer the same limitations” because they…
- Leave the insurance industry, with its emphasis on generating profits and revenues rather than providing care, in control of our health.
- Fail to assure financial security of American families by not cracking down on insurance pricing practices.
- Avoid the strongest cost controls that are achieved in a single-payer system with one shared risk pool that covers everyone, elimination of the administrative waste associated with private insurers, and use of the power of the public entity to negotiate lower costs.
- Does not protect choice of doctor, hospital, and other providers, as occurs in a single-payer system, because insurers can still limit choice to their own approved network of doctors and providers.
We may have to refer back to these points one day if half-hearted healthcare reform brings about the type of unintended consequences that end up making things worse than they already are.
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