Comments on: Sen. Daschle's "Critical" http://pnhp.org/blog/2008/12/08/sen-daschles-critical/ PNHP's official blog Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:04:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: hag2 http://pnhp.org/blog/2008/12/08/sen-daschles-critical/comment-page-1/#comment-602 hag2 Wed, 10 Dec 2008 03:21:18 +0000 http://www.pnhp.org/blog/?p=155#comment-602 I have Daschle's new 206 page book "Critical" and I have read it carefully in all my free time. Under the heading Options for Coverage, he writes " The key question for any health-care reform plan is 'How will it cover people?' Most of the world's highest ranking healthcare systems employ some kind of a 'single payer' strategy...that is, the government, directly or through insurer's, is responsible for paying doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers. Supporters say single payer is brilliantly simple, ensures equity by providing all people with the same benefits, and saves billions of dollars by creating economies of scale and streamlining administration. But a pure single payer system is problematic in the United States, at least right now. Even though polls show that seniors are happier with Medicare than younger people are with their private insurance, opponents of reform have demonized government run systems as 'socialized medicine'. The healthcare industry fears that government-set reimbursement will limit its ability to provide care and deaden incentives to develop new drugs and cures. Furthermore, many people who have insurance now are satisfied with it, and are wary of change. If passage of a single payer system isn't realistic, what should we do?" This 3/4 page is the only discussion of single payer in the whole book! He's unaware of the fact that 60% of physicians in this Country favor a single payer National Health Plan. He completely understands all the benefits to Americans of single payer, yet he dismisses single payer as an option. Here is an example of Change for the Common Good We Can't Count On! Send this to the 50 million uninsured, 75 million underinsured, 60 million people on Medicare and Medicaid, 10's of millions of unemployed, and millions under the care of the VA Hospital System and tell them they'll have to wait a few more years for quality affordable healthcare in this Country. In the meantime, let's all sit back and watch Daschle build his new redundant bureaucracy which he has named "Fed Health", and cry all the way to the ER........... Howard Green, MD, FACP, FAAD, FACMS I have Daschle’s new 206 page book “Critical” and I have read it carefully in all my free time. Under the heading Options for Coverage, he writes ” The key question for any health-care reform plan is ‘How will it cover people?’ Most of the world’s highest ranking healthcare systems employ some kind of a ’single payer’ strategy…that is, the government, directly or through insurer’s, is responsible for paying doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers. Supporters say single payer is brilliantly simple, ensures equity by providing all people with the same benefits, and saves billions of dollars by creating economies of scale and streamlining administration. But a pure single payer system is problematic in the United States, at least right now. Even though polls show that seniors are happier with Medicare than younger people are with their private insurance, opponents of reform have demonized government run systems as ’socialized medicine’. The healthcare industry fears that government-set reimbursement will limit its ability to provide care and deaden incentives to develop new drugs and cures. Furthermore, many people who have insurance now are satisfied with it, and are wary of change.

If passage of a single payer system isn’t realistic, what should we do?”

This 3/4 page is the only discussion of single payer in the whole book! He’s unaware of the fact that 60% of physicians in this Country favor a single payer National Health Plan. He completely understands all the benefits to Americans of single payer, yet he dismisses single payer as an option.

Here is an example of Change for the Common Good We Can’t Count On!
Send this to the 50 million uninsured, 75 million underinsured, 60 million people on Medicare and Medicaid, 10’s of millions of unemployed, and millions under the care of the VA Hospital System
and tell them they’ll have to wait a few more years for quality affordable healthcare in this Country. In the meantime, let’s all sit back and watch Daschle build his new redundant bureaucracy which he has
named “Fed Health”, and cry all the way to the ER………..

Howard Green, MD, FACP, FAAD, FACMS

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