America's health care system is sick

HealthCare 4 All PA Vice President Bob Mason has written a letter to the editor in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette which was published on March 21.  It can be read here.

Our health care system is sick and every day we receive reports of dire symptoms. Gov. Tom Corbett balks at Medicaid expansion that would provide health care coverage for 700,000 uninsured Pennsylvanians. Commonwealth Court ruled that some of the tobacco settlement money has to be devoted to health care, a long-awaited victory for the 42,000 Pennsylvanians who lost Adult Basic when Gov. Corbett began his administration. Since this decision probably will be reviewed by the state Supreme Court, our fellow citizens will have to wait still longer to find out if they will regain coverage. Finally, the behemoths, UPMC and Highmark, continue to squander our premiums on a feud reminiscent of the Hatfields and McCoys that includes doctors being forced to turn away patients. ("Medical Ethics Focus of Insurance Dispute," March 8.)

There is only one cure for what ails our health care system, a one-payer (also termed "single-payer") plan that would provide comprehensive care for all our citizens, allow true competition by freeing us to choose any provider, and save $17 billion by eliminating inefficient administration, excessive CEO salaries, insurance company profiteering, marketing and legal expenses, etc.

The financial viability of this approach has been supported in a study conducted by economist Gerald Friedman of the University of Massachusetts. Check out the details at www.healthcare4allpa.org. It is time that our health care system receives the effective medicine it deserves.

BOB MASON

The Supreme Pennsylvania Medicaid Decision

Little noticed in all of the celebrating over the Supreme Court's decision was the part of it that said that the federal government cannot take away federal funding for states that refuse to implement the Medicaid expansion that is contained in the Affordable Care Act.  States will be reimbursed for the expansion 100% in 2014 with decreasing amounts to 95% in 2017 and 90% in 2020 according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett(R) hasn't said if he will participate the expansion which could cover about an additional 800,000 of the state's estimated 1.4 million uninsured in 2009.  So far the governors of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina have said that their states will not participate in the expansion even though about 900,000 and 300,000 would become eligible in each state respectively.

Can past behavior on Medicaid in Pennsylvania be an indication of how Gov. Corbett will act?  In January I did a post on how about 88,000 children were dropped from the Medicaid rolls due to a bureaucratic backlog.  Greg Kaufman in The Nation magazine reports that number to be 89,000 and they still have not been reinstated and were not picked up by the CHIP program. Corbett's decision to end Adult Basic coverage for 45,000 Pennsylvania adults may provide an indication as well.


Right after the Supreme Court announced its decision on Thursday David Cole at The Nation said on Democracy Now! that "we shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."  I say we shouldn't let the lousy be the enemy of the good either.  A system that mandates care for all is what is needed as Walter Tsou points out in Common Dreams.

 

**Update**

The Facebook page Stop Obamacare in PA (111 likes) is circulating a petition urging Gov. Corbett not to implement any of the Affordable Care Act which can be seen here.  I do not know how many signatures they have and am not going to sign it but this could also be a good test case for how much leverage does the Tea Party have with the Governor. 

**Related Posts**

The Friday Morning Quarterback 

Protecting the Parasites: The Irony of Obamacare

The Pennsylvania Medicaid Budgetary Squeeze

States as Laboratories and Lavatories of Democracy

Theresa Chalich's Letter to the Editor on Single Payer

Long Time PUSH volunteer (and fellow Bishop McCort HS alum) Theresa Chalich wrote the letter below to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on March 18.  From her writing it sounds like she would make a good blogger :)
 

Our cruel system

This letter is written in response to the March 11 editorial "Profiles in Poverty." An essential solution to one of the economic problems for people in poverty, the ruinous expenses caused by a medical emergency, was glaringly omitted.

There needs to be recognition that when people do get the opportunity to get off public assistance by securing a job, there is a good chance that there are no work-related health care benefits. Part-time employment and low-wage jobs generally do not offer individual and family plans. And people cannot afford to pay for a private plan. Just look at what happened to adultBasic in this state.

What a quandary for a parent to have to choose between staying on welfare for the medical assistance for a sickly child and her family and being employed. What a cruel system we endure. We continue to blame the victim rather than seek systemic change.

The glaring solution is health care coverage that is not tied to a job. This means that we expand the Medicare program to all people. The newly hired worker will contribute payroll taxes into this single-payer system. Thus the community mutual obligation that you mention in the editorial will be a healthy step to lifting people out of poverty.

THERESA CHALICH, R.N.
Squirrel Hill