By Winchell Dillenbeck
Times-Standard (Eureka, Calif.), December 2, 2022
My name is Winchell Dillenbeck and I am a member of Health Care for All and Physicians for a National Health Program, a nonprofit statewide organization. Our mission is dedicated to achieving universal health care through single-payer public financing. Our goal is for all California residents to have guaranteed, high-quality, comprehensive health care.
A single-payer financing system has succeeded in countries throughout the developed world. People in these countries have better health and enjoy a lifestyle free of anxiety and worry about how to pay for a health crisis. All of this is accomplished at a lower cost to the people and businesses. The cost of health care in America is twice that of Western developed nations.
Our dysfunctional health care system is damaging our economy, suffocating our business, discouraging physicians and negatively impacting on the nation’s health while remaining unaffordable for a large portion of our citizens.
The key features of a Single-Payer/Medicare for All system include:
- Universal coverage: Everyone, no matter their age and ethnicity, is covered for life, regardless of their employment status, income level, health condition, marital status, or immigration status.
- Single-payer: One public agency versus numerous insurance companies.
- Comprehensive care: All essential and necessary care is covered including outpatient visits, hospitalization, ER, surgery, dental, vision, hearing, prescription drugs, mental health, reproductive and home health services, substance abuse recovery, and long-term care.
- Choice of providers: Patients choose their doctors, health professionals, and hospitals. There are no restrictive networks.
- Affordability: Eliminates the profit-driven motive of insurance companies; eliminates the high cost of executives; ends the wasted spending due to administration costs that account for the first 30 cents on every dollar spent on insurance; eliminate deductibles and co-payments; and saves money by negotiating prices for services, drugs, and medical supplies. It eliminates the employer based health care system and it allows individuals to have health care coverage if they lose their job or want to change jobs. Individuals and businesses pay less for health care coverage.
- Seniors: Eliminates supplemental plans and out-of-pocket expenses and includes vision, dental, hearing aids, and long-term care services.
The local chapter is the backbone of the organization. We activate people at a grassroots level by helping them understand not only how single-payer will improve their lives, but also how they can help make it happen. Local chapters organize panel discussions, host single-payer movie nights, attend fairs, send speakers to groups, meet with local legislators, write letters to the editor as well as a variety of other activities.
For further information, contact Health Care for All / Physicians for a National Health Program at healthcareforallhumboldt@gmail.com.
Winchell Dillenbeck is a member of Health Care for All and Physicians for a National Health Program.
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