^{Posted on April 10, 2007}

Group pushing for universal health care forms Birmingham chapter

DAVE PARKS
The Birmingham News
News staff writer
Monday, April 09, 2007

A newly reinvigorated chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program - an organization that has been pushing since the 1980s for universal health care - has formed in the Birmingham area.

Dr. J. Walden Retan, a practicing internist in the Birmingham area for the past 40 years, is president of the local chapter called Health Care for Everyone.

Retan said a local chapter of Physicians for National Health Program had existed in the past, but had been inactive in recent years. The group has reformed locally as part of an effort to influence the health care debate in the presidential campaign leading up to the 2008 election.

The group wants to extend a coverage like Medicare to everyone in the country from birth to death and eliminate premiums, co-pays and other out-of-pocket costs for health care.

“It could be paid for with an employer tax of about 5.8 percent, which is much less than what employers now pay for the insurance they provide for their employees, coupled with an income tax of 2.9 percent, which is much less than most people spend on out-of-pocket expenses … for insurance that’s available today,” Retan said.

Retan’s organization also wants to cut administrative costs of health care by eliminating private insurance companies.

“What’s unique about the proposal that our organization has been backing is that it proposes to eliminate private insurance carriers who generate on an average between 17 and 20 percent of their premium dollars being taken up in administrative costs and replacing them with a single-payer plan much as is present in Canada,” Retan said.

Health Care for Everyone is open to all interested people. For more information email healthcareforeveryone@charter.net or call 205-262-2001.

E-mail: dparks@bhamnews.com