Re: National health Insurance....

[Guest guest]

Hard to believe that doctors are finally getting around to wanting this.Well,

I can dream, can I not?

Love to all at cfparents and conncoll,

n Rojas

[Guest guest]

Wouldn't this be great?

Thanks for posting this article

Lenora

>Nearly 8,000 doctors call for national health insurance

>Tuesday, August 12, 2003 Posted: 4:03 PM EDT (2003 GMT)

>

>WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nearly 8,000 U.S. physicians are calling for

>government-financed national health insurance, which they say would

>cover every American while saving billions of dollars.

>

>Ten years after President Clinton's national health plan died in

>Congress, tangled in complexity and under fierce assault from the

>medical, insurance and pharmaceutical industries, the doctors argue

>that private sector solutions have failed.

>

>They contend that work in Congress to enact a prescription drug

>benefit for the elderly and disabled would shift more government

>money to private companies while offering little value to consumers.

>

>The doctors would put in place a single-payer system -- essentially

>an upgraded and expanded version of Medicare, the government health

>care program for the elderly and disabled.

>

> " HMOs, launched as health care's bright hope, have raised Medicare

>costs by billions and fallen to the basement of public esteem.

>Investor-owned hospital chains, born of the promise of efficiency,

>have been wracked by scandal, " the doctors write. " And drug firms,

>which have secured the highest profits and lowest taxes of any

>industry, price drugs out of reach of those who need them most. "

>

>Their proposal was published in Wednesday's Journal of the American

>Medical Association.

>

>The group of 7,782 physicians is led by Marcia Angell, former editor

>of the New England Journal of Medicine, and former Surgeons General

>Julius Richmond and Satcher.

>

> " The system cannot continue much longer the way it is, " Angell, a

>Harvard Medical School lecturer, said in an interview. " It is clearly

>imploding. It isn't that single-payer is the best choice. It's the

>only choice. "

>

>Sparking debate

>The American Medical Association remains opposed to a single-payer

>health care system, Dr. Palmisano, AMA's president, said in a

>statement.

>

> " By implementing a single-payer system, the U.S. would be trading one

>problem for a whole set of others, " Palmisano said. " Long waits for

>health care services, a slowness to adopt new technologies and

>maintain facilities, and development of a large bureaucracy that can

>cause a decline in the authority of patients and their physicians

>over clinical decision-making are all hallmarks of the single-payer

>system. "

>

>The American Association of Health Plans, the lobbying arm of the

>managed care industry, also said it opposed the doctors' proposal,

>which would eliminate for-profit hospitals and health maintenance

>organizations.

>

>The physicians signing onto the article account for less than 1

>percent of the 813,770 physicians in the United States as of 2000,

>according to the AMA.

>

>But Richmond said it is significant that a large number of doctors,

>traditionally opposed to government health programs, would endorse

>national health insurance. " Physicians have realized that there is

>something very fundamentally wrong with the system, " said Richmond,

>who served as surgeon general in the administration.

>

>The doctors said they hope to spark a debate over national health

>insurance that essentially ended with the death of the Clinton health

>plan.

>

>Of the Democratic presidential candidates, only Rep. Dennis Kucinich

>is advocating a single-payer system.

>

>Americans spend $1.6 trillion on health care, which the doctors say

>is more than enough money to cover every American. The doctors

>contend that there will be at least $200 billion in administrative

>savings in a single-payer, national insurance plan.

>

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