Articles of Interest
These articles highlight many of the health care related stories in the news--ranging from single-payer op-eds by PNHP members to reports by newspapers on corporate health care.Unitarian Universalists Endorse Single-Payer Health Care - July 2, 2008
by Larry Stauber
At their annual General Assembly in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Unitarian Universalist (UU) delegates passed a resolution endorsing single payer universal health care.The Doctors' Revolt - July 2, 2008
Roger Bybee | The American Prospect
Doctors have historically been the watchdogs of the U.S. medical system, with the American Medical Association scaring New Dealers into dropping national health coverage from the Social Security Act and then the AMA shredding Harry Truman's reform efforts in the late 1940s. But a new poll and other significant indicators suggest that doctors are turning against the health-insurance firms that increasingly dominate American health care.Study: Most Doctors Favor National Insurance - June 30, 2008
By Parker Duncan | Southern California Physician
For advocates of true healthcare reform, spring is in full bloom. April brought two important surveys and a high-profile investigative television report, all of which were supportive of national health insurance such as a "single-payer" system. California health professional students continue to add even more voices to the chorus. Will the California Medical Association join in?Presbyterian Church USA votes to support single payer healthcare - June 30, 2008
Last week there was a major victory at the Presbyterian Church USA General Assembly where many hundreds of commissioners from across the country met in San Jose to discuss and set church policy on a broad range of faith and justice issues. They voted 377 to 250 with 12 abstentions to support publicly financed privately delivered single payer health care.The battle to save Medicare - June 27, 2008
Saul Friedman | Newsday
Reader Jack Wajda, 69, of Orlando, a retired AT&T executive and financial planner, identifies the single greatest problem with the American health-care system as well as anyone. He writes: "To allow private for-profit insurance companies to decide whether and what type of care we receive is incomprehensible to me."International Health Systems for Single Payer Advocates - June 26, 2008
By Dr. Ida Hellander | PNHP Executive Director
Health care systems in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries primarily reflect three types of programs.Single Payer "American Style" - June 25, 2008
By Robert Zarr MD, MPH, FAAP | American Academy of Pediatrics | Letters
Let's not forget that we still have 9 million children without health insurance. These 9 million children forego necessary care, and suffer unnecessarily because of it. There is no doubt that the average Canadian child has better access to primary care than his/her American counterpart. The Canadian pediatrician, with lower office overhead, either specialist or primary care, is reimbursed with fewer hassles and more timely than his/her American counterpart.Fein Calls For Taking Profit Out Of Health - June 25, 2008
by Melinda Tuhus | New Haven Independent
This man wants to get rid of co-pays and deductibles for health insurance, which he calls "remarkably crude ways of controlling demand." He has a better idea -- health insurance for all in a system that allows private coverage with public funding.Media Miss Bigger Picture in Healthcare Debate - June 24, 2008
By Roger Bybee | Fair & Accuracy in Reporting
In the 2008 Democratic primary campaign between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, each is offering a slightly different variant of individual mandate-based healthcare plans relying on the private insurance industry. Media coverage has magnified the slight variations while almost entirely ignoring the big picture: Both health plans are based on a model that has consistently failed to get off the ground in numerous states.Dixon, U.S. Conference of Mayors push single-payer health coverage - June 24, 2008
by Sue Schultz Staff | Baltimore Business Journal
"By taking this action, the mayors have put, in the boldest way, single-payer national health insurance on top of the domestic agenda, squarely in the middle of the legislative and presidential election," said Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program.Stories That Go Nowhere Because They're Ignored - June 23, 2008
By Saul Friedman | Nieman Watchdog blog
This indifference and the resulting ignorance of the public, are haunting another issue–the prospect of single-payer, universal health care such as “Medicare for All.” Such a system is now supported by 56 percent of Americans, according to the Associated Press, and, for the first time, by 59 percent of the nation’s physicians. But you would not know that there is such a widely supported proposal awaiting congressional action, if you were reading the mainstream press accounts of a day-long health care forum staged by the Senate Finance Committee at the Library of Congress on June 16.A Presbyterian Minister Blogs for Single Payer - June 23, 2008
by David Bos | Louisville Letter
But, to me, Its still a mystery why we have 100,000,000 who are either uninsured or underinsured with the numbers and heart-rending stories growing day by day and millions of others with insurance who are just a serious illness away from backruptcy with apparently no political voice. Just think, polls show that over 60%, perhaps 70%, of the people want a Single Payer plan. The most recent polls show that a majority of doctors favor Single Payer. There are 90+ co-sponsors of Single Payer Bill HR 676 in the House of Representatives. Labor union locals are endorsing Single Payer at a rate of several a week. How can it be that these numbers represent no real decision-making power or influence in the political realm?The Experience of Exclusion: What Do We Do With People Like You? - June 23, 2008
By Donna Smith | Phoenix, Arizona
For those of you who have seen Michael Moore's movie, SiCKO, you know that my husband and I lost our home in South Dakota after suffering through years of healthcare related financial trauma and finding no way to hang on. We are filmed moving into our daughter's small storage room or computer room or spare office or whatever you'd like to term it. And you see our youngest son confronting us about our situation. He asks us: "What Do We Do With People Like You?"Single payer system is path to universal care - June 23, 2008
By Bill Roy | Topeka Capital-Journal
[P]ressure is building. Some day shifting public opinion and looming personal, business, state and federal bankruptcies will make elected officials consider a single payer-universal care system, which, in one form or another, has been adopted by every other industrial democracy, many of which have healthier populations that live longer. All spend substantially less.Taiwan: Surprising Lessons From a Small Island - June 20, 2008
By John Reichard | CQ HealthBeat Editor In the middle of May, two Taiwanese officials, Hou Sheng-Mou and Michael S. Chen, came to Washington facing a tough assignment: promote single payer health care in a city where it's widely regarded as a non-starter in the debate over revamping the U.S. system.25 Million Americans Are 'Underinsured' - June 20, 2008
By Steven Reinberg | HealthDay
The number of American adults who had inadequate health insurance to cover their medical expenses rose 60 percent from 2003 to 2007, from 16 million to more than 25 million people.Health Care: Go Canadian - June 19, 2008
by James Clancy, National Union of Public & General Employees | Business Week
I find Top 10 lists are a useful way to quickly distill large and complicated issues down to the bare essentials. So here are my Top 10 reasons the U.S. should adopt Canada’s single-payer health-care system.Paying More, Getting Less - June 19, 2008
By Joel A. Harrison | Dollars and Sense magazine | May/June 2008 issue
Americans may well underestimate the degree to which they subsidize the current U.S. health care system out of their own pockets. And almost no one recognizes that even people without health insurance pay substantial sums into the system today. Not only is the money [going to health insurers] lost to health care, but it pays for a system that often makes it more difficult and complicated to receive the care we've already paid for.Health Care, the Massachusetts Way - June 19, 2008
Alan Meyers | The New York Times | Letters
As a Massachusetts primary care physician, I dearly wish that your optimism for our state’s health care plan were well placed. My fear, however, is that any plan that does not eliminate the colossal waste of multiple competing private health insurers is doomed to failure.A Cure for Our System - June 19, 2008
Harvey Fernbach, MD | Letters to the Editor | The Washington Post
While I welcome the heightened attention of policymakers, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, to our failing health-care system, I was struck by how few real "prescriptions for change" emerged from the Senate Finance Committee’s health reform "summit" Monday.