By Jack Bernard
Modern Healthcare, Letters, June 15, 2019
Modern Healthcare last week reported that the American Medical Association membership narrowly defeated a resolution to repeal theĀ AMAās opposition to Medicare for All.Ā Significantly, it was a large contingent of medical students as well as younger physicians who wanted the AMA to endorse single-payer. Physicians for a National Health Program, having thousands of mostly younger members, was there.
As someone with a strong health policy background who has written about the topic extensively, I agree with those med students; Physicians for a National Health Program; Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and others regarding healthcare reform. Medicare for All is not only a moral imperative and completely feasible, it is the only way to control our nationās runaway health expenditures.
Those who advocate maintaining Obamacare vs. single-payer assume the effectiveness of private enterprise vs. government. Generally, yes, private enterprise is more efficient than government. However, the exception to the rule is healthcare. Medicareās overhead is 2% vs. about 12% for the for-profit insurers.
Repeated analyses by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development illustrate that we pay much more per capita than any other affluent democracy for healthcareāevery year. All developed nations have greater involvement of government in their healthcare financing systems compared with the U.S. and most have found a way to cover 100% of their citizens at a much lower cost.
Jack Bernard is the former director of health planning for Georgia and a retired health care executive.