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MNA
Supports Single Payer Health Care Initiative
We are part of a health system which has replaced humanitarian values
with the heartless tenets of the market. Why do all attempts to
“reform” the system seem only to make the problem worse?
For a health system to meet the needs of us and those entrusted
to our care, three essentials must be addressed simultaneously and
consistently: Access, Quality, Affordability. The Single Payer health
care system promises to do all three.
Learn
About Single Payer
Definition of Single Payer Terms:
1)
Universal:
All residents of a geographic/political entity; includes everyone,
regardless of medical condition; a vast pool that guarantees affordable
costs; "Everyone in, nobody out", (In some single payer plans, there
are waiting periods for newcomers, but then they are included.)
2)
Single Payer Health Care:
Everyone's health care is paid for out of one publicly administered
trust fund which replaces our current multi-payer system.
1) provides all residents with comprehensive
health care coverage
2) assures freedom to choose M.D.s, Nurse
Practitioners, and other health care professionals, facilities,
and services
3) eliminates the role of insurance companies
3)
Social Insurance:
Administered by a public agency, not commercial entities; directed
to a social goal - to promote the nation's health through universal
access to care the nation can afford - rather than to make money;
all members of society are in one risk pool, not 1500 pools each
trying to avoid risk; higher percentage collected funds go to care
(97 percent vs 60-75 percent).
4)
Comprehensive:
Coverage which includes all services determined by physicians, nurses,
and other health professionals to be necessary. Includes rehabilitation,
long term and home care, mental health care, prescription drugs,
medical supplies, preventive and public health measures, in addition
to all acute services.
5)
Capitation:
Prospective, flat-fee payment, by insurer to provide, based on the
number of patients listed with that provider, without regard to
actual health service needs. When a patient requires higher
than average level of care, the patient's provider must absorb the
extra cost. Conversely, when the lower than average level
of care is required, the provider absorbs the savings. Creates financial
incentive for provider to limit care options offered to patients,
to shun patients with complex needs, while trying to attract young,
healthier patients.
6)
Consolidated health care finance:
One agency budgets, collects and disburses the money to pay for
care, similar to Medicare in which administrative costs take only
2-3 percent of overall health expenditures.
7)
Administrative Overhead: Portion of health care expenditures
consumed by clerical and technological support for filing and re-filing
claims, denial/payment of claims, advertising, executive salaries.
While Medicare administrative costs take only about 2-3 percent
of their expenditures for administration costs, the lowest percentage
for any private insurer is 14 percent.
Other Related Resources
- www.Allies-Now.com.
New Web site providing a national data base for single payer reform.
-
Bleeding the Patient, the Consequences of Corporate Health Care.
Himmelstein, David U., M.D. and Steffie Woolhandler M.D., M.P.H.
with Ida Hellander M.D. Available February 2001 from Common Courage
Press. Order now; it’ll be shipped on printing. (800.497.3207,
www.commoncouragepress.com
)
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Understanding Health Policy: A Clinical Approach. Bodenheimer,
Thomas and Grumbach, Kevin. 1998, Appleton and Lang. Bleeding
the Patient: The Consequences of Corporate Health Care. Himmelstein,
David U., M.D. and Woolhandler, Steffie, M.D., M.P.H. with Ida
Hellander, M.D. Available February 2001, Common Courage Press.
Call 800.497.3207. www.commoncouragepress.com
-
Chartbook, “Multinational Comparisons of Health Care Expenditures,
Coverages and Outcomes. October 1998. Available free from The
Commonwealth Fund, 212-606-3800, cmwf@cmwf.org
or at www.commonwealthfund.org.
-
Free US Government Accounting Office (GAO) study on single payer
called "Canadian Health Insurance Lesson for the United States",
GAO/HRD-91-90. To order call 202.512.6000.
-
Majority (57 percent) of academic medicine physicians favor single
payer. Study in New England Journal of Medicine finds medical
school deans, faculty, residents, and students favor single payer
3 to 1 over managed care (Source: Physicians for a National Health
Program Press Release 3/24/99)
- Journal
for Health Politics, Policy, and Law. February 2000. Entire
issue dedicated to individual health insurance market.
-
Kuttner, Robert, Everything for Sale: The Virtues and Limits
of Markets, Chapter 4: Markets and Medicine" 1997, Alfred
A. Knopf.
What you can do right now
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Call your State Senator and your State Representative and ask
if they are cosponsors of S.755 The Massachusetts Health Care
Trust. If yes, thank them. If no, urge them to become cosponsors.
To contact them via the Web: www.state.ma.us/legis
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Contact the Public Communications Dept. of MNA 800.882.2056 with
the name(s) of a nursing organization(s) of which you are a member.
Members of the MNA task force on single payer will work with you
to contact that organization to arrange a presentation to its
members on “Nurses, Nursing, and Single Payer Health Reform.”
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Talk to two co-workers, friends or family members about why single
payer finance and the Mass. Health Care Trust legislation will
improve quality, access, and affordability of care.
-
Write a letter to your local newspaper urging support of the Mass.
Health Care Trust bill, (Senate bill 755); The Massachusetts Health
Care Trust"; creating a single payer system in Massachusetts.
- Invite
a speaker from Mass Care
(the statewide coalition for single payer reform) to address a
group in your community or professional association. Contact Mass
Care at 617.357.7003 or masscare@aol.com.
Mass Care’s web site is: www.masscare.org.
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Call the MNA at 781.830.5717 for more information.
Look
Who Else Supports Single Payer
-
The Massachusetts Teachers Association in 2003 reaffirmed their
commitment to support he legislation with a grant of $10,000 to
Mass Care. The MTA has joined
the MNA as one of over 80 member organizations of
Mass Care , the Massachusetts Single Payer Coalition.
Did
you know?
-
Since 1970, the number of health care administrators has increased
23 times faster than the number of doctors and nurses. Source:
Bleeding the Patient (See “resources”
above ).
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About two-thirds of uninsured adults reside in households with
at least one full time worker. Source: The Urban Institute, research
results released May 18, 2000.
-
As part of the new law regulating managed care in the commonwealth,
the Legislature established a 32-member advisory committee “to
evaluate an independent analysis of the feasibility and fiscal
implications of establishing a system of consolidated health care
financing and streamlined health care delivery model accessible
to every resident of the commonwealth.” MNA will be represented
on this Committee by Judith Shindul-Rothschild, R.N., PhD. of
Boston College, a nurse researcher and economist and a powerful
advocate for single payer reform.
This
page of the MNA Web site "A nurses guide to single payer reform"
is being developed by a distinguished editorial board, including:
Alan Sager, PhD and Deborah Socolar, MPH, researcher, economist;
Judith Shindul-Rothchild, PhD, RN, nurse researcher, economist;
David U. Himmelstein, MD; Steffie Woolhandler, MD, MPH; Margaret
O'Malley, RN; Julie Pinkham, RN; and Suzanne Gordon, author.
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