by Larry Stauber
June 30, 2008 — At their annual General Assembly in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Unitarian Universalist (UU) delegates passed a resolution endorsing single payer universal health care.
Six resolutions, called Actions of Immediate Witness (AIW), were passed with little or no discussion during the sixth and final plenary session on Sunday.
The single payer AIW urges UU congregations all over the country to lobby their representatives to co-sponsor and pass HR676, the United States National Health Insurance Act (Expanded and Improved Medicare for All). HR676 proposes a single-payer universal health care system and currently has 90 sponsors or co-sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives.
According to the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA) bylaws, Actions of Immediate Witness are resolutions “concerned with a significant action, event, or development, the timing or specificity of which makes it inappropriate to be addressed by a UUA Statement of Conscience.” They should be focused and urgent enough to require immediate action.
It was noted in the resolution that the U.S. Conference of Mayors, held recently in Miami, unanimously endorsed single payer health care.
The AIW on single payer health care was the only one to provoke any discussion.
Speaking on behalf of the resolution before a crowd of over 3,000 who attended the assembly, UU Minister the Rev. Lucy Hitchcock Seck of Miami, Florida, said “It’s time our nation, founded on promoting the common welfare, promoted healthcare for all.”
Single payer is a system in which doctors, hospitals, and pharmacists are paid out of one pot of money, usually provided by the government.
John Harky of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville, said he felt that speaking against the resolution was like speaking against apple pie. Despite that, he expressed the fear that single payer would narrow “the possibilities for universal health care coverage.” He said that supporting only single payer could peel away support for other forms of universal coverage.
Proponents of single payer insist that it is the only universal health care plan that is affordable. They say it would eliminate the high overhead typical of the private insurance sector and would give Medicare the ability to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over drug prices, which Medicare is currently prohibited by law from doing.
It would also eliminate the “hidden costs†of health care caused by employer-based health insurance policies, which forces companies to increase the price of goods and services to cover the cost of health insurance.
It would allow doctors to reduce the cost of office administration by eliminating staff who must deal with duplicative insurance forms and who fight daily battles with their counterparts at the insurance companies.
Supporters of single payer say that other universal health care plans that have been advanced simply propagate the current chaotic, wasteful and expensive system.
The United States National Health Insurance Act would establish a national universal health insurance program. The bill would create a publicly financed, privately delivered health care system. Doctors would be paid on a fee-for-service basis as they are under Medicare. The legislation would “improve and expand†the current Medicare program. The goal of HR676 is to ensure that all Americans have access, guaranteed by law, to the highest quality and most cost effective health care services regardless of their employment, income, or health care status. One provision of the act would prohibit private health insurers from selling coverage that duplicates the benefits provided by the program.
Other AIW’s that were passed at the 2008 UU General Assembly included: Oppose a U.S. Attack on Iran; Raise the Federal Minimum Wage to $10 in 2010; Extend the Tax Credit for Wind and Solar Power; and Oppose the Florida and California Marriage Protection Initiatives.