ERs in crisis, but writer knows well of solution
Palm Beach Post
Letters
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Your Dec. 6 piece “On-call ER crisis still on gurney” illustrates the problems facing emergency rooms all over the country. Health-care writer Phil Galewitz accurately recites the complexity of the solutions. It is disappointing that he ignores the best solution, one that he knows about since he was the moderator for a public debate several years ago on problems and solutions to our dysfunctional health-care system.
A single-payer system would provide the opportunity of a “medical home” (Health Affairs/Commonwealth Fund 2007) for everyone, thus reducing non-emergency traffic in ERs. It also would, and equally important, pay every doctor promptly for services rendered. These two solutions, and many others, have persuaded the American College of Physicians (124,000 physicians) to endorse single-payer along with 86 members of Congress (HR 676).
Single-payer is neither magical nor free; nor is it copied from another country. Please include this growing alternative solution whenever health care is seriously discussed.
ROBERT P. STEVENS
Floridians For Health Care
Jupiter