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| Not This Will Ferrell |
Below is comedian Larry the Cable Guy telling Sean Hannity his opinion of the Affordable Care Act. Unlike other rantings and ravings on Fox News, this is actually funny.
SINGLE-PAYER, MEDICAL INSURANCE, and the CORBETT PLAN
Recently, Governor Corbett unveiled a Medicaid expansion plan called Healthy Pennsylvania. Few would disagree with the Governor’s objectives of increasing access, improving quality and making healthcare affordable for all Pennsylvanians.
Medicaid is a healthcare program funded by both the state and the federal government that provides direct care to individuals with limited income. The fastest growing population group in this category are seniors whose income falls within the threshold of income limits for Medicaid. In effect Medicaid supplements Medicare which is for all people over the age of 65. Medicaid has income limits, while Medicare does not. Most of the Medicaid supplement is used for long term care facilities.
Under the Affordable HealthCare Act, states may expand the eligibility for Medicaid, with the Federal Government picking up much of the cost. This expansion is optional for the states, although many states have already agreed to sign on.
Note, it is important to distinguish between health insurance and healthcare. Healthcare programs such as Medicaid and Medicare pay directly the doctors and hospitals that provide healthcare services to people.
With health insurance, people pay premiums to private insurance companies, who then pay the doctors and hospitals for healthcare services provided to those paying the premiums. Under Governor Corbett’s plan federal Medicaid funds would be used to buy health insurance for eligible participants, rather than providing direct healthcare.
HealthCare 4 All PA (HC4APA) believes this is a poor use of money that only increases the cost and limits the funding pool available to pay for actual healthcare. The reasoning is simple-health insurance has administrative costs in excess of 15%, meaning that 15 cents of every dollar does not go to pay for healthcare. Contrast this with Medicare and Medicaid where administrative costs are about 3%.
Therefore, under the Governor’s plan to turn Medicaid healthcare into an insurance program, more money will be spent and fewer people will be treated due to this disparity in administrative costs. HC4APA also believes that decisions about your healthcare should be made by you and your doctor, not by an insurance company whose primary motivation is to receive more money in premiums than they must pay out to doctors and hospitals.
HC4APA does agree with the Governor that the best healthcare delivery solutions are developed at the state and local government levels. States have often been called the laboratories of the nation. Following this ideal, HC4APA has developed a Single-Payer healthcare delivery system. Single-Payer simply means that Pennsylvania would develop a healthcare delivery system modeled after Medicare, meaning doctors and hospitals would be paid directly for healthcare services provided to each of us.
The system would be funded by taxes paid by all businesses and by all individuals. It is clear, however that such taxes would be significantly lower than individuals and businesses are already paying in insurance premiums, deductibles and co-pays for healthcare. We can be confident of this because HC4APA contracted and paid for an Economic Impact Study (EIS) performed by several leading healthcare economists. This study demonstrated that Pennsylvania’s healthcare costs could be reduced by some $17 billion each year under a single- payer plan.
Currently, the costs of healthcare are very high and growing well ahead of the rate of inflation. If we, collectively, do not address these costs, the healthcare system will become unsustainable in its present configuration. A single-payer plan attacks those costs.
In addition, many other forms of business and personal insurance include healthcare cost components. These include vehicle and homeowners insurance and for businesses, workers compensation and liability insurance. The costs of these insurance policies would also decline when the state implements single-payer.
The bottom line is that a single-payer healthcare plan costs less and fosters free and open market competition. Single-payer moves the marketplace competition from the insurance company to the medical providers who will have to compete directly for your healthcare needs.
We encourage you to visit www.healthcare4allpa.org to learn more about the single-payer plan and to read the EIS that will document the value of the plan. Then become an activist by networking with family and friends, asking them to support the bill by calling their Legislators and ask them to vote for Senate Bill 400 and House Bill 1660. This will only happen if we the people want it to happen. We have the power.
William Ferrell
Board Member HC4APA
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