Single-payer
is the way forward on health care
December
7, 2013
Letter
writer Elizabeth Stelle of the Commonwealth Foundation sees
government involvement in health care as a disaster and regulations
and mandates as the cause of rising health care costs in this country
(“Medicaid
Is High Cost for Low Quality,”
Dec. 2).
Rather
than dealing with inadequacies of Medicaid she seems to support Gov.
Tom Corbett’s refusal to extend coverage to 542,000 Pennsylvanians.
She
fails to note that private insurers, drug companies and providers,
whose primary interest is profits, are mainly responsible for rising
health care costs.
The
Department of Veterans Affairs pays 40 percent less for drugs because
of its buying power.
I
share Ms. Stelle’s concern about poor quality and high costs. As an
analyst, is she aware of a recent study of state Senate Bill 400 by
Gerald Friedman? He found that Pennsylvania could provide
comprehensive care to every Pennsylvanian and save $17 billion a year
through a single-payer system provided in the bill. Vermont just
passed a single-payer system.
There’s
nothing new about the idea. Every other industrialized country in the
world has some version of government health care. They also have much
healthier citizens. The United States is far behind these countries
in health outcomes. Here, 120 people a day die due to a lack of
health care. Half of all bankruptcies are due to medical bills. While
Obamacare does provide some real improvements, it falls short due to
its complexity and failure to cover everyone.
Go
to www.healthcare4allPA.org.
Then tell your state legislator to serve his or her constituents by
co-sponsoring single-payer legislation.
MOLLY
RUSH
