Excerpt from Forbes.com
Dr. Ana Malinow
President, Physicians for a National Health Care Program
We already outspend every industrialized country by almost twice as much per person, but our outcomes are nowhere near twice as good as everybody else’s. The problem with the way our system is funded is that 30% off the top automatically goes to administration and profit. So if we take that out of the equation by creating a single payer system then we will be able to cover anyone. We would just need to pay more from our taxes, but we’d be paying zero for private health insurance.
Innovative Healthcare Solutions: Dr. Ana Malinow
Since 2002 I’ve been giving talks on health care reform to anybody who would like to listen. I tell people how much we spend on our health care, which is now almost $2 trillion per year. I say I’m going to give you $2 trillion and I want you to come up with a health care system you’d be willing to spend it on.
And for that I want you to come up with a set of guiding principles that you’re not going to negotiate on. Invariably everybody comes up with the same principles: universal, accessible, affordable, accountable and comprehensive.
The only health care system that has those principles is a single-payer system. Think of a Medicare for people over 65 and another for those under 65, covering everybody from birth to death. It would be publicly financed and privately delivered.
We already outspend every industrialized country by almost twice as much per person, but our outcomes are nowhere near twice as good as everybody else’s. The problem with the way our system is funded is that 30% off the top automatically goes to administration and profit. So if we take that out of the equation by creating a single-payer system, then we will be able to cover anyone. We would just need to pay more from our taxes but we’d be paying zero for private health insurance.
Every 10 or 15 years Congress comes up with another iteration of universal health care and every single time it’s squashed. If you look at the people who are losing health insurance at the fastest rate today it’s those people making over $70,000 per year. Those are the people who vote consistently. I think that’s what is different today. I think that is going to have a huge impact on the success of reform.
Ana Malinow, M.D., is president of Physicians for a National Health Care Program.
–Interviewed by Andy Stone