Join David Broder in supporting the Citizens' Health Care Working Group survey
Broder on Politics
Live Discussion with Post Columnist David S. Broder
washingtonpost.com
March 24, 2006
San Juan Capistrano, Calif. (Don McCanne): Do you believe that the report to be produced by the Citizens’ Health Care Working Group (Wyden and Hatch legislation in the MMA) and submitted to the President and Congress will have any impact in moving forward the process of health care reform?
David S. Broder: I would like to think so. The crisis in the health care system is obvious when you look at what it is doing to family budgets, to business’s bottom line and to the budgets of state and local government—let alone the fact that we have millions living uninsured. The need for action is obvious—but so are the difficulties of finding a comprehensive solution. I hope this report will be a spur to action.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/16/DI2006031601132.html
Comment: By Don McCanne, M.D.
If you have not already provided your input into the Citizens’ Health Care Working Group survey, you should do so ASAP. Your preferences on health care reform will be included in the report to be submitted to President Bush and to Congress. Several committees in Congress will hold hearings on this report.
If you do not have time to respond now, keep this link to access the site at the very next moment that you do have time to respond. Do not put it off.
http://www.citizenshealthcare.gov/
Particularly important is the Public Comment Center, especially the Health Care Poll, and What’s Important to You?
http://www.citizenshealthcare.gov/speak_out/comment.php
Below are my answers (Don McCanne) to the four questions in What’s Important to You? If you disagree, you should respond to be certain that your views are also represented. If you agree, you should state your views in your own terms since they are more interested in individual responses rather than an orchestrated campaign.
What’s Important to You?
Question: What concerns you most about health care in America today?
Answer: The failure to provide comprehensive, high quality health care services for everyone when we are already spending enough to do so.
Question: Our current way of paying for health care includes payments by individuals, employers, and government. Are there any changes you think should be made to this system?
Answer: We should replace our highly inefficient, fragmented method of funding health care with a single, public system of social insurance.
Question: What trade-offs do you think the American public is willing to make in either benefits or financing to ensure access to affordable, high quality health care?
Answer: Since we are already spending enough, we don’t have to exclude reasonable, beneficial services from coverage. The primary trade-off for a public insurance program is that we would have to be diligent in preventing perverse political attacks on the system.
Question: What is your single most important recommendation to make to improve health care for all Americans?
Answer: Adopt a single-payer system of national health insurance.