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Washington, D.C. The organized medical society for the District of Columbia has decisively passed a resolution in support of "single payer"-style health insurance as an option for health reform. The Medical Society of D.C.which is an affiliate on the state level of the American Medical Association (AMA), thus becomes the first state-level medical society in the United States to do so. Numerous other medical societies have narrowly defeated similar resolutions. The AMA is the historic leader of the opposition to national health insurance.

"By endorsing single payer, the D.C. Medical Society has shaken up the house of medicine," said Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP). "After a long repudiation of 'government medicine,' American doctors are having a wake-up call from the ravages of for-profit corporations upon their cherished profession. In that light, the pioneer action of the DC society is a bellweather of additional movement in the this direction," added Dr. Young.

The recent action taken by the Medical Society of D.C. is one of several events around the country indicating a possible sea change in the medical establishment towards national health insurance. The Massachusetts Medical Society has commissioned a study to determine the feasibility of single payer health care. A few months ago, Dr. Robert Tenery Jr., the former president of the Texas Medical Association, wrote in the AMA American Medical News that a single payer health care system is the preferred alternative to the disintegration of the health system as a result of managed care takeover.

"The passage of this resolution by the Medical Society of D.C. reflects physicians' growing frustration with increasing corporate-domination of the practice of medicine and growing awareness that a single payer national health insurance plan is the only viable option. It is our hope that this option will be seriously considered and debated by the nation's policymakers," said Sara Nichols, PNHP's Washington Director. "The society should be applauded for taking a bold step in the right direction." added Ms. Nichols.

The resolution passed by a decisive margin at the yearly Medical Society of the District of Columbia's House of Delegates meeting held October 5, 1996. The resolution supported single payer national health insurance as one option for health reform as long as certain predetermined criteria are met. The actual text of the resolution has not been released to the public but PNHP has obtained a copy of it which is attached to this press release.

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A study by Harvard researchers and leaders of Physicians for a National Health Program published in this month's American Journal of Public Health punctures the myth that costly emergency room visits by uninsured patients are driving health costs. President Clinton and other policy leaders have spotlighted ER overuse as a major concern, and managed care plans often deny coverage for ER visits as a cost-saving measure. The study found that uninsured patients use no more emergency care than insured people, and often pay out-of-pocket for their ER visits.

The study, based on data from the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey, found:

ER care for the uninsured totaled only $1.1 billion, or 0.23% of all health care costs; the entire ER bill for all Americans amounted to 1.9% of all health spending.

The uninsured averaged $37 per capita per year in ER care, vs. $38 for those with insurance.

The uninsured paid 47% of their ER costs themselves; only 10% was free care that hospitals cost-shifted to other patients.

While the uninsured got no more ER care than insured Americans, they got much less of other kinds of care. Hence, restricting ER access would take away a critical health care resource for the uninsured.

Children and black men also received much of their care from ERs.

Study author Patrick H. Tyrance, Jr., a senior student at Harvard Medical School and Kennedy School of Government commented: "Too often, minorities, the poor and the uninsured are blamed for high health care costs. Restricting ER visits will save little money, but will cut the care of people who need it most. We need to minimize ER care by making other care available, not by penalizing patients."

Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard and study co-author said: "HMOs often refuse to pay ER bills, which shifts costs to the patients and increases HMO profits. Policymakers want us to believe that we must curtail further care to bring down costs. But compared to Canadians we pay 40% more for care and get less: fewer ER visits, fewer doctor visits, shorter hospital stays, even fewer high tech procedures like lung transplants."

Dr. Woolhandler is a co-founder and spokesperson for Physicians for a National Health Program, a 7,000 member organization that supports universal access to health care under a single payer national health insurance program. PNHP has 59 state and local chapters.

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