Invitation to a Dialogue: A National Health Plan

Letter
New York Times, August 23, 2011

To the Editor:

In “Will Health Care Reform Survive the Courts?” (State of Play, Sunday Review, Aug. 21), Philip M. Boffey states that “reforms would work far less well without an individual mandate” that requires citizens to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

I disagree. Health care reform could provide better care at less cost by replacing individual mandates with a single-payer national health care plan financed by taxes. Congress’s power to mandate purchase of private products sold at a profit is disputable, but Congress’s power to tax is not.

Other industrialized countries have national health plans providing care to more citizens at less cost with better outcomes than our system. And they don’t use mandates that allow insurers to charge different prices for different people.

These health care systems have three common properties: public subsidies ensure that everyone has access to care regardless of health, wealth or employment; primary care is encouraged; and publicly accountable, transparent, not-for-profit agencies transfer funds from patient to provider.

There is no need to experiment with mandates. Convert our current health care system into a national health plan.

SAMUEL METZ
Portland, Ore., Aug. 21, 2011

The writer, an anesthesiologist, is a founding member of Mad as Hell Doctors, which advocates a single-payer system.

Editors’ Note: We invite readers to respond to this letter for our Sunday Dialogue. We plan to publish responses and Dr. Metz’s rejoinder in the Sunday Review. E-mail: letters@nytimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/opinion/invitation-to-a-dialogue-a-national-health-plan.html