A SOLUTION TO THE HEALTH CARE CRISIS By Pam North A timely topic was addressed at a forum held at Nederland’s Community Center last Thursday evening. “U.S. Health Care Reform - What Should We Do?”, sponsored by Nederland Area Democrats, covered grave concerns shared by many American citizens today. The United States’ expenditures on health care per capita is nearly double that of any other industrialized nation in the world, yet the statistics reflecting the quality and efficiency of American health care reveal disturbing facts. America ranked (as of 2003) 37th internationally in health care, 24th out of 29 in infant mortality, 22nd and 23rd respectively in male and female life expectancies, and 5th out of 6 in longest wait times for appointments. Our choice of doctors is restricted by the insurance companies; over one-half of all personal bankruptcy filings are due to disastrous medical bills; 18,000 Americans die annually for lack of health care. Clearly, the correlation between money spent and results obtained is not favorable. Additionally, 46.6 million Americans, including one out of six (788,000) Coloradans, lack health insurance, and nationally the percentage of workers covered through their jobs is only 54% (down from 66% in 1979). Enough money is spent in this country on health care to cover everyone, but nearly one-third of every dollar spent is directed to non-care issues such as excessive administrative salaries, corporate profits, marketing, lobbying and bureaucracy. Howie Wolfe, MD, was the featured speaker in last week’s presentation. He is the former Vice-President of Health Care for All Colorado (HCAC). HCAC is a volunteer-based non-profit organization working to: inform Coloradans about the advantages of single-payer financing for health care; develop strategies to achieve comprehensive, affordable, high-quality health care for all Americans; build a grassroots movement to campaign for the single-payer system of financing health care in Colorado and the nation. Dr. Wolf received his medical degree from the University of Iowa in 1959, interned at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, began family medical practice in Colorado in Longmont in 1962, then in Lafayette in 1974. He is concerned about the health care crisis in the United States, which stems from our expensive multi-payer system, and he favors a change to a single-payer system. His view is that currently all health insurance companies compete to insure healt hy people so that the result is maximum profit for their shareholders rather than optimal benefit to patients, and he believes that the single-payer universal health care system is the only viable solution to the U.S. health care problem. A national single-payer health care system allegedly has many advantages. Single-payer financing eliminates the hundreds of insurance companies; only one agency, such as Medicare, would pay the private-sector providers. Overhead costs would be drastically reduced, channeling over $100 billion a year into higher quality and more comprehensive patient care rather than into corporate coffers. Single-payer advantages also would include the following: all medically necessary care (preventive, acute, mental health, long-term) would be provided, and medications would be guaranteed for all residents; financial barriers to care, the need for 1500 different insurers, bureaucratic interference into medical practice, and administrative costs all would be eliminated; private insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses would be replaced with progressive general taxes to finance medical care, with public accountability established; patients would be allowed to choose any doctor, hospital or clinic, and doctors would be able to choose their practice setting; health care delivery systems that are based on profit and financial incentives for care denial would be banned; no ties to a particular employer would be necessary; there would be no complex forms to fill out. Health care is a serious issue for all Americans, especially for the growing segment of the population unable to afford the inflated costs of medical services, prescriptions and health insurance. It is our responsibility to explore alternative, viable options and solutions for all citizens, and to communicate with our elected representatives to convey our concerns for the crisis in our health care system, and to demand that they play an active role in rectifying this problem. More information on single-payer health care is available at: Health Care for All Colorado P.O. Box 280767 Lakewood, CO 80228-0767 Phone: (303) 277-8306 or (866) 267-9462 Email: info@healthcareforallcolorado.org Website: www.healthcareforallcolorado.org