By Diana Nelson Jones
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Sunday, May 10, 2009
About 60 people formed parentheses around the back entrance of the Cranberry Municipal Building, chanting their support for single-payer health care as U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire approached for a town hall meeting yesterday.
Surrounded by signs touting legislation aimed at creating a national health care system, Mr. Altmire, D-McCandless, stopped to shake hands on his way into the meeting. Several people accused him of reneging on early support of the bill, which would expand on Medicare as the national model of payment.
But Mr. Altmire said he determined after polling his constituents that most do not support a single-payer system, in which one government or government-related agency would distribute tax dollars to pay doctors chosen by patients. The system would eliminate private insurance companies.
Supporters said a single-payer system would assure health care for all Americans, including those who cannot afford insurance.
“We don’t need insurance companies to provide medical care,” said Sandy Fox, president of the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Single-Payer Health Care. “We need health care providers to provide medical care.”
Critics use the term “socialized medicine” to describe a single-payer system, but Mary Pat Donegan, Western Pennsylvania’s coordinator of Health Care 4 All PA, said that would not be the case.
“It is competitive, the best quality of capitalism,” said Ms. Donegan, who also was among the protesters yesterday. “People choose the providers they want.”
Dr. Scott Tyson, a pediatrician, practices in Mt. Lebanon and Peters, “but I live in Jason’s district,” he said.
“I can’t notsupport” a single-payer system,” said Dr. Tyson. “My disappointment is that there aren’t 10,000 physicians out here protesting. Fifty million people uninsured is criminal. I went into medicine to take care of people. If I have to think about whether someone can pay me, I can’t do my job.”
So why aren’t more physicians protesting?
“Because we’re comfortable,” said Dr. Joe Talarico, an anesthesiologist who practices at UPMC Presbyterian and who also attended yesterday’s protest. “We make six figures and get the best health care there is. It is unconscionable that the have-nots are left out in the cold.”
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, co-sponsored H.R. 676 — the U.S. National Health Insurance Act — in 2007. Similar state legislation also has addressed the issue.
Advocates of the legislation who attended yesterday’s protest said they believe Mr. Altmire is influenced by campaign contributions.
OpenSecrets.org, a Web site launched by the Center for Responsive Politics, reported that two of Mr. Altmire’s top five contributors in 2007-08 were UPMC Health System, with total contributions of $34,650, and the American Hospital Association, $18,375.
But Mr. Altmire said he does not support government-run health care.
“We are going to do health care reform; I just don’t agree with this approach. I favor paying doctors and hospitals for quality over quantity and allowing people under 65 to buy their way into Medicare.”
For 150 million people now privately insured, he said he supports changing provisions that deny coverage or change rates for pre-existing conditions.
“I support private insurance for people who like it,” he said. “We just have to find a way to get health care to the 47 million Americans who are not insured.”
Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626.
First published on May 10, 2009 at 12:00 am