NEWS

Mass. seniors salute MNA for stance on single payer
By Phil Mamber

The Massachusetts Senior Action Action Council applauds the Massachusetts Nurses Association for its endorsement of a universal, single payer health care system. This again demonstrates that nurses are caregivers in the true spirit of the word.

It has long become obvious that the U.S. health care system is in crisis. Managed care has become mangled care. Community hospitals are closing all around us. Over one half million seniors have been thrown out of Medicare HMOs because the cost of their care is considered excessive by the HMO managers.

Capitation systems, incentive systems, and tremendous pressure to speed up service to patients has convinced us that insurance based health care is poor care that gets worse every day.

But not only is insurance based care poor care, it is also a conflict of interest.

When you buy fire insurance on your house, or accident insurance on your car, or insurance on your life, it is in both your interest and the insurance company’s interest that you have no fire in your home, that your car never has an accident and that you live a long, long life. But when you purchase health insurance and the cost of your care begins to exceed the premiums you pay, then you no longer have a community of interest with the insurance company and it becomes the best interest of the insurer to find a way to terminate your insurance coverage one way or another. This conflict of interest must end.

The Mass. Senior Action Council has been a supporter of a universal, single payer health care system for a long time. As seniors, we need a system where humane care is more important than profits; where controlling the profiteering in prescription drugs is more important than the contributions drug companies make to politicians; and where our health care is in the hands of doctors and nurses, instead of insurance company executives.

Achieving a single payer system will not be easy. The insurance companies and the drug manufacturers spend millions on lobbying and campaign contributions. Their influence is tremendous in the Legislature and the Governor’s office. It will take a mighty coalition to gain single payer and the support of the Mass. Nurses Association is vital to that coalition.

So, welcome aboard! Your association, along with Mass. Senior Action, the labor movement, MassCare and the many other groups that support social justice can and will reform a sick system and make health care a basic right for all Americans. 

Phil Mamber is president of Massachusetts Senior Action Council. He is also the retired president of UE (United Electrical and Machine Workers).