By Iyah Romm, Sylvia Thompson, MD and Elizabeth Wiley, JD, MPH
I want to cover everybody. Now, the truth is that, unless you have a single-payer system, in which everybody is automatically covered, then you’re probably not going to reach every single individual. ~ President Barack Obama, July 22, 2009
As future physicians, ensuring that every single one of our patients has unrestricted access to health care is a core tenet of our professionalism. President Obama has affirmed what many of us know to be true – a single-payer system is the only responsible solution to our health care crisis. The vast majority of our seniors are satisfied with Medicare; in fact, many patients anxiously await Medicare eligibility because of the security and stability provided by the program’s guarantee of coverage and access. Labor unions and advocacy organizations across the United States support a single payer system as do the majority of health care providers. These groups – these constituencies – recognize that single payer is the best system in which to guarantee quality, affordable, health care for all.
On July 31, 2009, Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY) introduced an amendment in the House Energy & Commerce Committee to replace key provisions in the House health reform bill with language modeled after HR 676, the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) guaranteed a floor vote on single payer if Rep. Weiner withdrew his amendment. Under good faith, Rep. Weiner assented. Now, Speaker Pelosi is reneging on her promise not only to Rep. Weiner, but to the American people, many of whom believe that we need to have a true debate on the merits of a single-payer health care system. We write today calling for an end to these games. Our legislators must stop politicking with the most valuable resource available to them – the lives of our patients, their constituents.
In the long history of single payer advocacy, there has never been such a momentous time – never have Americans had the opportunity to hold their representatives accountable to the people on this issue – rather than to the powerful lobbies that pervade the beltway. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, nearly one in two Americans support a system of publicly funded, privately delivered, Medicare for all – will the floor vote reflect this statistic? We will only know if Speaker Pelosi upholds her promise.
The American people should be able to trust members of Congress to stand by their promises – both to them and to each other. In the health care debate, the needs of average Americans must come before special interests and politics. Our friends, family, and patients deserve to a true, honest debate. Denying that chance through lies and broken promises is an anti-democratic betrayal of trust that will not easily be forgotten – now or at the polls in November. The Weiner amendment presents a historic opportunity for members of Congress to document their support for single-payer national health insurance as the best way to solve the U.S. healthcare crisis and provide a vote that Members can proudly stand by when approached by constituents.
We see everyday how budget shortfalls result in staff reductions that ultimately threaten the quality and availability of care. Single payer would provide universal and comprehensive coverage for all medically necessary services. Unamended, HR 3962 (formerly HR3200) would leave millions uninsured or with skimpy coverage. Single payer would allow patients free choice of doctor and hospital. Under HR 3962, insurance companies would continue to deny care and restrict access to providers. Single payer would pay for itself by eliminating $400 billion in insurance company administrative waste and redirecting these savings to patient care. HR 3962 would require $1 trillion in new revenue over the next decade. Single payer would establish proven and effective cost-containing mechanisms to ensure that benefits are sustainable over the long run. HR 3962 lacks effective cost control measures by maintaining the primacy of the private insurers.
The private insurance industry has had eight decades to lead change, to shift from a world predicated upon a race to the bottom-line to a culture of innovation and care. But their time has passed. Speaker Pelosi must offer the leadership necessary to truly reform our system and to address one of our greatest moral failures of the last fifty years. Only a single payer system can provide the change President Obama has championed, the change we need – simplifying payment, eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy, and investing the subsequent savings into a solitary goal, providing care to all. The math is simple, the morality pure, and the passion of single payer advocates indefatigable. As future physicians, this is the type of system in which we aspire to practice medicine.
Iyah Romm, Sylvia Thompson, MD and Elizabeth Wiley, JD, MPH are physicians-in-training and PNHP members as well as national leaders in the American Medical Student Association (AMSA).