The Ask:
Of course you can write a tax-deductible check for more or less than $1000. (Always check with your tax accountant.) Your donation goes for a good cause. Please see: www.HealthCare4ALLPA.org for information about the organization and the health proposal it advocates for.
Background:
Even though 68% of the PA Senate (34/50 Senators: 20 Democrats and 14 Republicans) agreed to fund an Economic Impact Study (EIS) for SB 400, the Family and Business HealthCare Security Act, a publicly-funded, privately-delivered plan (with no deductibles or copays) that would cover every Pennsylvanian, sources tell us Banking and Insurance Chair Don White would not allow a vote on this study. The study would conclude, once and for all, if a one-payer system would cut health care costs by 50% while providing choice of doctors/hospitals and a superior set of guaranteed, uniform benefits for all of us. The radically-increasing cost trajectories of our current system are unsustainable. The one-payer system, by contrast, would finally put an end to this cost curve, freeing up dollars for other sectors of our economy—like Main Street businesses and personal savings!
So:
HealthCare4ALLPA.org’s 501(C)3 intends to raise money to fund an independent study on its own, as well as continue its day to day work of educating the public about the merits of a one-payer system. You can be in the forefront of changing the way we finance health care in PA. A Medicare-like one payer system for our medical bills would consolidate the thousands of insurance plans/payers in our Commonwealth—a hodge-podge of overlapping, inefficient, profit-first entities which “take” 30% of every health dollar we send their way. The economies of scale inherent in having ONE entity pay our bills is enormous. This is the most fiscally responsible solution available.
How:
Send a check payable to: HealthCare4ALLPA Education Fund, noting (EIS) or Economic Impact Study in the Memo section of your check.Your check will help fund the EIS and also the continuing educational efforts of the Education Fund. Send to:
HealthCare4AllPA Education Fund
2101 Murray Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15217
Jim Russo comments:
Trouble is, there’s no way to know what the costs of “HealthCare4All PA” will be — indeed, that’s the point of conducting the study. We promise at our peril that it will be substantially less costly than, say, the insurance-industry model. Certainly we can look to experience in Canada, Holland, Sweden and Germany for examples of insurance plans that provide universal access at relatively lower cost. Even nations that have not chosen to bar insurance companies from their health care systems — Switzerland comes to mind — enjoy lower per capita costs than ours. In every case, sensible public regulation of the health care system turns out to be the key.
It appears that Congress hasn’t the stomach to revisit health care anytime soon. Our challenge, given that political reality, is to insist on tough regulation of the system, top to bottom.
J
callmeslick comments:
Jim,
If I understand properly, this study will relate to costs in PA, with a goal of single payer in PA. Of course, the research will aid any other folks involved with this issue in other states.
Rosie,
Check on the way to Pittsburgh.
Rosie Skomitz comments:
Many thanks, Slick! I hope others will follow your lead. And you are correct – the Economic Impact Study will crunch the numbers for single-payer in PA. Other states are working on this as well.
Jim, it is precisely because we want real, hard and fast numbers to prove that a single-payer system in PA will do what we claim that we want an Economic Impact Study to shine the light of day on our claims. Keep in mind that in the countries that you mentioned, with insurance companies allowed to be part of the system, they are HIGHLY REGULATED. Given the influence of insurance company lobbyists in the U.S., the strong regulation you call for is unlikely to happen. Armed with the documentation from an EIS, we can make a strong case for a publicly-funded, privately-provided single-payer system.