Health care advocates today said that a single payer universal health care system is the best approach to providing quality, affordable health care to all Americans while controlling costs. The groups are planning a single payer health care lobby day and rally at the State Capitol on Tuesday May 6th.

The New Yorkers for Single Payer Health Care urged the State Assembly to pass Resolution K779 (Felix Ortiz) to support HR 676 (Conyers) in Congress. Several months ago Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried circulated a sign on letter by state legislators urging passage of HR 676.

The Governor’s Task Force on Universal Health Care is doing a cost benefit analysis of a state single payer program. The state single bill (A7354 / S 3107) has 85 co-sponsors in the Assembly.

Among the numerous groups in NY supporting HR 676 include the Physicians for a National Health Program, New York State Nurses Association, NYS Academy of Family Physicians, Healthcare Now, Tompkins County Health Care Task Force, Hunger Action Network of NYS, Healthcare Work Group (Otsego, Delaware & Chenango Counties). Presbyterian Church USA. United Auto Workers, Albany Central Federation of Labor, AFSMCE District Council 37, Professional Staff Congress-CUNY, CWA Local 1180, United University Professions (Local 2190 AFT).

Single Payer is defined as financing health care expenditures for the entire population through a single source, presumably the government, with funds collected through progressive taxation of citizens and businesses

"The US spends more than twice as much on health care as the average of other developed nations, all of which boast universal coverage. Yet close to 50 million Americans have no health insurance whatsoever, and most others are underinsured, in the sense that they lack adequate coverage for all contingencies (e.g., long-term care and prescription drug costs). Why is the U. S. so different? The short answer is that we alone treat health care as a commodity distributed according to the ability to pay, rather than as a social service to be distributed according to medical need,” said Mark Dunlea, Executive Director of Hunger Action Network of NYS.

"Millions of New Yorkers lack health insurance and when these individuals get sick they must choose between paying their rent and going to the doctor. They must choose between buying food and buying medicine. This is totally unacceptable and we must do better. We have a responsibility to the hard-working taxpayers of New York to rectify this situation. The entire State benefits when its citizens are healthy,” stated Assemblymember Ortiz.

It is estimated that 2.6 million New Yorkers lack health insurance at any one point in time. The number of New Yorkers who experience at least some period of uninsurance over a year period is over 5 million.
 
Gottfried’s state single payer proposal (A7354) is sponsored by more than half of the State Assembly. Last year the Legislature allocated funding to do a series of cost benefit studies to determine the best way that New York could provide health care for all. One of the plans to be studied will be a single payer system. A study by the Lewin health research group of a single payer system for California estimated annual savings of $38 billion over a ten year period.
 
“A prime benefit of a national single payer system is that it would save several hundred billion dollars annually by eliminating the high overhead and profits of the private, investor-owned insurance industry and reducing spending for marketing and other satellite services. Doctors and hospitals would be freed from the burdens and expenses of paperwork created by having to deal with multiple insurers with different rules - often rules designed to avoid payment,” stated Dunlea.

HR 676 has 89 cosponsors, including NY Congressional representatives Engel, Hinchey, Maloney, McNulty, Nader, Owens, Rangel, Serrano, Towns, Weiner and Velazquez.

Public opinion polls have consistently shown strong public support for a universal health care system. For instance, a March 2007 poll by CBS/ NY Times found that 64 percent of the respondents said the government should guarantee health insurance for all; 27 percent said it should not. An overwhelming majority in the poll said the health care system needed fundamental change or total reorganization.

A single payer system – sometimes referred to as improved and expanded Medicare for All - eliminates all financial barriers to healthcare.  It does this by eliminating the huge waste and paperwork of the private health insurance system. Private insurance uses up as much as thirty cents per dollar; Medicare’s administrative costs in comparison are 3%. The thousands of insurance companies and their dueling forms and coverage criteria force doctors on average to hire 2.5 staff people just to deal with the paperwork, further driving up costs.
 
While the United States has very skilled health providers, our health care system performs poorly, with its overall quality only ranked 37th by the World Health Organization.  US spending on health care is now over 2.1 trillion dollars – nearly $7,000 per person. This is more the double the world average of $2,571. This amounts to a whopping 15.5% of our GNP on health care – far more than any other country – which puts our businesses at a competitive disadvantage in the international marketplace.
 
Increases in health care costs thwart job growth, suppress increases for current workers, weaken the viability of pension funds, and depress the quality of jobs. Rising health care costs are also causing budgetary problems for federal and state governments, who are currently paying over 50% of the US health care bill.
 
”Despite having some of the best medical professionals, hospitals and equipment in the world, the U.S lags behind many other countries on basic public health indicators such as life expectancy and infant mortality rates.  The World Health Organizations ranks our overall health care system only 37th,” noted Dr. Richard Propp of the Capital District Alliance for Universal Health Care.
 
Inadequate coverage, even among persons who are insured, has become a major cause of personal bankruptcies. Medicaid expenditures now represent (if we include the federal share) almost half of the state budget.
 
”The huge numbers of New Yorkers without health insurance -- almost one in three in a twelve-month period -- are a major factor in our state’s expenditures for health care and in the financial problems facing many hospitals. High health care costs are a major reason in why we have such high auto insurance and worker comp rates in our state. Rising health care costs are a major burden on all employers and are increasingly the main reason for labor-management disputes,” added Propp.

A single payer healthcare system eliminating the insurance companies would solve these seemingly overwhelming problems in New York State.

“A critical aspect of good healthcare is the working relationship between the patient and the doctor,” noted Dr. Tony Mason, Vice-Chair of the Capital District chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program. “Our current system does not support this relationship. Patients do not have freedom to choose their own physician but are constrained by income or by the limits imposed by an insurance company. It is not infrequent that one of my patients will change jobs and then be forced to change physicians.  An extreme example of lack of relationships exists for those people without insurance.  Clearly the solution to this problem is a single payer system. In a single payer system with universal coverage a patient would be free to choose any physician.”