"The fundamental problem, the problem that underlies all the others, is that the United States has a market-based system. We're the only advanced country that does. The systems in the other countries vary in details -- some have single-payers like Medicare, others have tightly regulated private insurers -- but they all have in common universal coverage in predominately nonprofit systems. In all of them, government sets benefits and prices in one way or another, including prices of prescription drugs, and administrative costs are much lower. And it works. ... Health care is a social good, not a commodity, just as primary education, fire and police protection, and clean water are. A market-based system is not only wasteful, it's immoral." -- Dr. Marcia Angell,The benef…
Trailer from Thomas Marko on Vimeo.
The full movie:
BIG PHARMA - Market Failure (FB-Trailer) from Thomas Marko on Vimeo.
From Physicians for a National Health Program - California Chapter (Aug 28, 2017):
Single payer's opponents, both in and outside the legislature, are playing politics. The reality is that, at the time SB 562's progress was obstructed, amendments were already waiting for consideration, including financing provisions based on a landmark economic analysis released at the end of May (see https://theintercept.com/?/pollin-why-single-payer-now-is-?/).
The legislative leaders understood this when they blocked SB 562, and the information was available to anyone else who had a genuine interest. Frankly, anything less than wholehearted involvement in developing and enacting a single-payer program without further delay is simply an accommodation of the insurance industry. The main barriers …
The Terms of health-care debate must be shifted
by Dennis Kudinich
The Nation, March 2017
The
health-care debate in America is essentially an argument over what kind of
private insurance market people should have access to: President Obama's, where
the insurance companies made out like bandits, or President Trump's, where
insurance companies will make out like bandits.
Let's change the debate by making it between for-profit insurance vs. not-for-profit health care. That's what I and Congressmen John Conyers and Jim McDermott sought to do in 2003 when we wrote and introduced Medicare for All, HR 676, in the House of Representatives.
...........Here is what the for-profit insurance system brings:
- Rising premiums and co-pays.
- Diminishing coverage.
- More government subsidy of private i…
If you're uninsured, Covered California will provide access to affordable healthcare for you!
Covered California's mission is to improve health care in our state by increasing the number of Californians with health insurance, improving the quality of health care for all of us, reducing health care costs and ensuring that California's diverse population has fair and equal access to quality health care.