Falling Through the Safety Net
Americans Without Health Insurance
By John Geyman, M.D.
Common Courage Press, 2005
It is now time to recap what we have seen in earlier chapters, and to reconsider how our failing health care system can be fixed. We saw in parts I and II that our supposed safety net for those without health insurance is in tatters. Given our economic uncertainties, widespread deficits in federal and state coffers, and the market-based, consumer choice directions in health policy further advanced since the 2002 midterm elections, we can expect that the safety net will become even more porous in the next few years. We saw in Chapter 11 that for-profit investor-owned health care corporations are beholden to their investors more than to the public interest, and in Chapter 13 that these stakeholders represent a powerful
obstacle to structural system reform. We reviewed the four major alternatives for reform in Chapter 12. Although highly contentious and polarized as the debate continues among these four alternatives, we examined solid evidence that the first three alternatives – incrementalism, strengthened employer-based health insurance, and increased consumer choice – cannot effectively reform a flawed system. Although many still cling to hopes that pluralistic “reforms” which retain a for-profit health insurance industry can be successful if given more time or tweaks, a growing body of evidence-based opinion holds that universal coverage through a publicly administered single-payer system will be required.
Falling Through the Safety Net:
http://www.commoncouragepress.com/index.cfm?action=book&bookid=254
Comment: John Geyman, M.D., is Professor Emeritus and former Chairmen of
the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle, and former Editor of the Journal of the American Board of Family Practice. This week he became the 2005 President of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP).
At the link above, brief commentaries on this book are provided by David Satcher, Marcia Angell, Claudia Fegan, Donald Light, and Fitzhugh Mullan.
After reading this book, you’ll understand why our current efforts to expand coverage are not working. Bringing those left out up to the edge of the umbrella of coverage will only drench the needy with greater debt.
This book is yet another “must read” in the health care reform movement. Also, you’ll receive more insight to the gifted man who will be providing us with the leadership to help spread our message to a nation that is desperately seeking solutions that would ensure affordable access to high quality health care for everyone.