By Maryanne Hidalgo Kehoe, R.N.
The Daily Star (Oneonta, N.Y.), March 24, 2017
Single-payer is not socialized medicine, it is socialized bookkeeping. It is the smart business method to reduce the cost of health care. Single-payer was supported by President Trump when he was still wearing his businessman’s hat.
Congressman Faso (Daily Star, 3/2/17) denies that there is significant cost savings with single-payer. In contrast, Dr. Antoinette Kuzminski (Daily Star, 2/18/17) writes, “Twenty-five percent of the American health care dollar goes to the care and feeding of private insurers — their bureaucracies, their shareholders, their CEOs.”
Savings estimates from moving to a single-payer system range from 11 percent to 31 percent, but it only takes common sense to know that removing the profit-motivated private insurance companies from the mix will save money; lots of money! Money saved would be more than the estimated yearly deficit reduction of $33.7 billion projected by American Health Care Act currently before Congress. Single-payer saves money AND would allow we the people to provide health care for all. Learn more about single-payer at:
https://www.pnhp.org/facts/single-payer-faq#what-is-single-payer
Write, email and call ALL your representatives in New York and Washington, including President Trump. As a businessman and our president, he needs to help all Americans struggling with our very confusing, inefficient and inequitable health care system. Please also support the cause for universal health care in New York. Single-payer Lobby Day and Rally in Albany is on Tuesday, April 04, 2017, at 10 a.m. For more information, go to: http://www.nyhcampaign.org/calendar.
Maryanne Hidalgo Kehoe, RN, MS, FNP, resides in Hartwick.
