http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/06/15/a_singular_solution_for_healthcare/">An Op-Ed from the Boston Globe
By Judy Norsigian and Jennifer Potter
Judy Norsigian is executive director of Our Bodies Ourselves. Jennifer Potter, MD, is director of the Women's Health Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and director of women's health at Fenway Health.
June 15, 2009
A single-payer healthcare system would more effectively control costs than any other plan that Congress is considering as it moves toward a reform bill. And by controlling costs, existing resources could be allocated more equitably, especially for the benefit of women.
First, single-payer plans eliminate the $300 billion to $400 billion that insurance companies spend annually in administrative overhead and waste. Second, single-payer plans are best positioned to take on the enormous challenge of reducing or eliminating the financial incentives that have led to so much overtreatment and undertreatment.
Maternity care illustrates this phenomenon: We spend far more per capita than any other industrialized country and yet do worse on most birth outcome measures than most of these other countries....
Coverage with a single-payer plan is independent from employment. Because women are more likely to be self-employed, to work part time, and to move in and out of employment outside the home, they are now more likely either to lack coverage through work or to lose insurance when changing jobs.
Medical debt is an enormous concern for many women, and single-payer plans effectively address the cost issues that send women into debt and even bankruptcy. A 2009 Commonwealth Fund study found that 45 percent of women accrued medical debt or reported problems with medical bills in 2007 compared with 36 percent of men. Under Rep. John Conyers' single-payer bill, a family of four making the median income of $56,200 would pay about $2,700 in payroll tax for all health care costs - with no deductibles or copays or concerns about catastrophic costs.
Read more
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
