| President Clinton did not and now President Bush will | | | | Back in the office the following week, one of the |
| not address health care reform in a way that deviates | | | | women whose job it is to deal with insurance |
| even slightly from the HMO and Managed Care | | | | questions, solved the dilemma and the supplies are |
| Industries that have given large sums of money to | | | | now paid for. The child's mother had receipts, and the |
| both campaigns to keep them quiet. Thus these | | | | HMO reimbursed her from the time of the car |
| special interests maintain the status quo of the for | | | | accident. |
| profit health insurance corporations that have taken | | | | I wondered why the insurance company did not |
| over the health care system in America. | | | | automatically pay for these services? If I had not |
| Every day, approximately 100,000 people lose health | | | | helped stage an elaborate fund raising event and had |
| insurance coverage in the United States. Over | | | | dinner with the boy's grandmother, this revelation may |
| forty-four million Americans do not have health | | | | not have surfaced. A Universal Single Payer health |
| insurance at all. The people who have HMO's as their | | | | care plan would make it possible for all people to get |
| only choice of insurance routinely face rejection of | | | | the services they need and free up doctors and |
| payment when serious health problems arise. The | | | | nurses to give the care that people deserve, plus fulfill |
| doctors employed by HMO's make decisions about a | | | | all of the reasons doctors and nurses entered their |
| person's health without laying hands on the patient. | | | | respective professions to begin with: to be of service, |
| They do not examine, listen to or have any contact | | | | to help other people and to bring healing to patients |
| with the patient about whom life and death decisions | | | | and their families. |
| are made regarding their health. | | | | Physicians for a National Health Program in America |
| This is a human rights abuse in a civil society such as | | | | have devised the following plan for implementation. For |
| ours, or any other society, for that matter. | | | | more information, please access |
| Search Engine Marketing Specialist | | | | National Health Insurance, if implemented, would |
| Since 1995 SEO/SEM tools, training, and professional | | | | minimize any disruption to the current health system |
| "full service" Search Engine Marketing help at very | | | | because health care delivery mechanisms would |
| affordable rates. | | | | remain in place while only the financing mechanism |
| There are over 1500 insurance companies in America | | | | changed. Single Payer National Health Insurance would |
| with different rules of what services will or will not be | | | | resolve virtually all of the major problems facing |
| funded. Our facility has hired two people just to handle | | | | America's health care system, today. |
| the health insurance questions that arise every day. | | | | Single Payer Insurance is defined as a single |
| They often have a frustrated and perplexed look in | | | | government fund with each state which pays hospitals, |
| their eyes as they undertake to find solutions to | | | | physicians and other health care providers, thus |
| problems, and then have to contact a faceless | | | | replacing the current multi-payer system of private |
| bureaucratic entity about whether or not a service will | | | | insurance companies and other plans. |
| be paid for. | | | | It would provide coverage for the forty-four million |
| Health care providers must also take the time to | | | | people who are uninsured. |
| speak to these people, to convince them to pay for | | | | It would eliminate the financial threat and impaired |
| proposed services. Letters must be written to | | | | access to care for tens of millions who do not have |
| convince the HMO/Managed Care bureaucrats to | | | | coverage and are unable to afford the out-of-pocket |
| take a second look at what needs to be done for | | | | expenses because of deficiencies in their insurance |
| patients, to ensure good quality medical care. | | | | plans. |
| Health care workers have accepted the unacceptable | | | | It would return to the patient free choice of health care |
| and do not seem to know the way out of the | | | | provider and hospitals, not the choice that only the |
| quagmire. | | | | restrictive health plans allow. |
| I once helped to raise $3,000.00 for a seven year old | | | | It would relieve businesses of the administrative hassle |
| patient who was in an automobile accident, and | | | | and expense of maintaining a health benefits program. |
| suffered a lower spinal cord injury. He is paralyzed | | | | It would remove from the health care equation the |
| from the waist down. The proposed goal for the fund | | | | middleman-the managed care industry-that has broken |
| raiser was to buy a handicapped accessible van. Since | | | | the traditional doctor-patient relationship, while diverting |
| these vans cost anywhere from $15-30,000.00 dollars, | | | | outrageous amounts of patient care dollars to their |
| the family bought a computer, instead, enrolled the boy | | | | own coffers. |
| in a study offered online by the Shreiner's Hospital in | | | | It would control health care inflation through |
| Philadelphia for spinal cord injured patients. | | | | constructive mechanisms of cost containment that |
| At the fund raising dinner, I sat with the patient's | | | | improve allocation of our health care resources, rather |
| grandmother. She told me she wanted the money to | | | | than controlling costs through an impersonal business |
| be put in a trust fund to pay for the child's catheter | | | | ethic that robs patients of care so as to increase |
| supplies, diapers and medicine that the Managed Care | | | | profits for the privileged few. Single PayerUniversal |
| Insurance company would not pay for. | | | | Health Care would provide access to high quality care |
| "Wait a minute," I said. "You mean you are paying for | | | | for everyone at affordable prices. This would be |
| all of the supplies out of pocket without insurance | | | | beneficial for individual business as well as the |
| reimbursement?" | | | | government. |
| "Yes," she said. | | | | So why don't we have a National Single Payer Plan? |