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i like this guy (David Price, D, NC)
Thank you for contacting me regarding your support of a single-payer program to achieve universal healthcare system in the United States. It is good to hear from you.
Like you, I understand that universal coverage must be a key element of the health care reform package, and I believe that any plan to achieve universal coverage must include a carefully crafted, publicly-administered option in the health insurance "exchange." While I am sympathetic to arguments that a single-payer health care plan along the lines of Medicare would achieve universal coverage more quickly, we do not yet have the votes for a bill with a public option. A broader single-payer plan would have even more difficulty.
A number of analysts have examined single-payer systems in other countries as well as Medicare, which is already larger than the Canadian national system. Medicare has performed well in keeping administrative costs low, less well in encouraging coordinated and collaborative models of care. In any event, President Obama made the strategic judgment to build upon rather than replace the present workplace-based system of insurance. Opponents were thus denied the opportunity to threaten people with the loss of something they have and value, a tactic which helped produce the defeat of reform in 1994. But they still are determined to raise the bugaboo of "government run" health insurance, which they have proceeded to apply to the public option with a vengeance. I am determined to beat back these attacks.
Serious health care reform is an essential investment in our nation's long-term fiscal, economic, and personal well-being. The American people need a health care system that ensures stable coverage, affordable premiums and copayments, and quality care. My concept of reform - which is embodied in each of the three committee bills that are now being combined into a single measure in the House - contains two simple principles: (1) an end to insurance discrimination based on one's medical history, age, or gender and (2) a widening of the "pool" of the insured to as near universal coverage as possible. This is a matter of justice and basic security for all Americans, and also a necessity if we are to require insurance plans to take all comers. All three bills also allow Americans who have and value their insurance at work to keep it, while creating a new insurance "exchange" offering a range of private plans and a publicly-administered plan to uncovered individuals and small businesses.
There are still some details to work out, but I expect the House bill to contain these basic features, and I hope we can pass it very soon. Thank you for contacting me, and please continue to keep in touch.
Sincerely,
DAVID PRICE
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