By Pat Berger/guest columnist
Wed Oct 15, 2008
Brookline Tab -
Voters in Precincts 14, 15 and 16 in Brookline (Michael Rush’s district) will have the opportunity to vote on a non-binding ballot question on Nov. 4. The ballot question was initiated by Mass-Care, the organization that sponsors the campaign for single-payer health care reform in Massachusetts.
The wording of the ballot question is: “Shall the representative from this district be instructed (1) to support legislation that establishes health care as a human right regardless of age, state of health or employment status, by creating a single payer health insurance system that is comprehensive, cost effective, and publicly provided to all residents of Massachusetts, and (2) to oppose any laws penalizing the uninsured for failing to obtain health insurance.”
Voters may wonder why they should vote YES on the Nov. 4 ballot question that asks support for a universal single-payer health care system. Don’t we have universal health care now? Didn’t we pass a new law in 2006 that gives everyone health insurance coverage?
The fact is that we don’t have universal coverage now. More than 400,000 people have signed up for subsidized and non-subsidized health insurance plans, but there are still around 300,000 uninsured who haven’t bought private commercial insurance policies, largely because the premiums and out-of-pocket expenses are not affordable. Even residents with “good” employer-based private health insurance are vulnerable to crushing medical debt, whether from serious illness or economic problems, if they lose their jobs. Only a single-payer system guarantees health care for all Massachusetts’ residents, continuously.
Our present law was designed to cover the uninsured by having the state subsidize the health care premiums for families earning below 300 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, and helping people in higher income brackets find “affordable” insurance through the Connector. Many other states, including Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii, have tried similar plans in the past. But all of these plans have failed in the long term, because the annual 10 percent to 15 percent escalation of health insurance premiums have made the subsidies unaffordable for the state.
The basic problem with the new law is that it leaves the health insurance industry (with its profit motive) in control of our health care system. The insurers set the premiums for their “products;” health insurance premiums are not set by the state. Furthermore, the insurance industry wastes 20 percent to 30 percent of the health care dollar on high CEO salaries, administrative waste, marketing, underwriting and an endless round of claims denials. In the spring of 2008, the 12 percent to 15 percent hike in proposed health insurance premiums prompted the state’s Connector to protest and demand that the insurance companies find a way to lower their premiums. The insurers came back with a 7 percent to 8 percent rise in premiums, but shifted the costs to patients by raising co-pays and deductibles, and reducing benefits. As Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, said, “The health insurers try to keep premiums down and profits up by stinting on medical services. We are the only nation in the world with a health care system based on dodging sick people.”
What we all want is easy access to affordable, high-quality medical care, and regular preventative care that promotes good health and gives us a full choice of providers. We want our health care system to be sustainable in the long term, and be equitable so that access to medical care is not based on race, ability to pay, gender, religion or sexual orientation, but is based on medical need. We want patient care to be the focus of health care reform.
We oppose the punitive individual mandate in our present law, which fines the most vulnerable residents for not purchasing health insurance. We need to support single-payer health care reform!
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