By Amy Bartlett
Siuslaw News (Florence, Ore.), Feb. 18, 2011
With a shared passion for health care reform, a group of Northwest physicians, calling themselves “Mad as Hell Doctors,” have been traveling the country to get the word out about changing what they term a “fragmented, broken health care ‘non-system.’”
The doctors were in Florence Tuesday for an evening of discussion, videos, and a little light-hearted music to educate the public and garner support for the Affordable Health Care for All Oregon Act, which was introduced recently in the Oregon House by Rep. Michael Debrow, and will later be introduced to the Senate by Sen. Chip Shields. Both Dembrow and Shields are Portland democrats.
The doctors, some of whom are also members of the Oregon chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program, have worked with other health care advocacy groups to draft the language for the new bill, now HB 3510, which calls for the establishment of a single-payer health system.
The campaign has been promised committee hearings in both the House and Senate, which have yet to be scheduled.
The doctors argue that single-payer coverage “would cure what ails us.”
“Single-payer is the fiscally responsible thing to do,” said Dr. Paul Hochfeld, an emergency room physician from Corvallis, who described a single-payer system as one in which “we pool all our money (which could include progressive income tax, payroll tax and other funding sources), we put everybody in the same risk pool and we provide care for everybody.”
Hochfeld said taxpayers already foot the bill for health care in this country, but many do not enjoy the benefits.
The nation is divided into different risk pools that taxpayers support, he explained: Medicare, which is a very expensive risk pool because it’s for older people; Medicaid, which is also expensive because it is for disabled and poor people; veterans; and Indian Health Service. He said the taxpayer then gives tax subsidies to the insurance companies to cover healthy people.
“The very process of dividing the country up into all these risk pools and the process of these insurance companies fighting for the lowest risk pools of the employed people, costs us about 20 to 30 percent of all of our health care dollars,” said Hochfeld. “It adds nothing to the health of people and actually complicates the lives of providers who have to spend time and money dealing with all of these insurance companies because they all have different sets of rules.”
It is estimated that physicians spend $60,000 per year handling insurance claims.
Not everyone who receives care is able to pay; hence, providers charge higher fees to make up for lost revenue. Health insurance premiums are inflated to cover the cost of the uninsured.
“You are not only paying with taxpayer money, but you are also subsidizing the uninsured through your premiums.
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