It is Sunday morning, August 30, 2009. This afternoon between 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. there will be a “Town Hall Meeting” at the Pahrump Nugget about healthcare reform. I have been invited to attend as a “moderator.” The event has been sponsored and put together by Dan Schinhofen.
Dan is a columnist with the Pahrump Mirror, a weekly newspaper. So am I. Dan also has a weekly local TV talk show on Channel 30 on Fridays. I was his guest on the show last Friday.
I asked him how he was going to conduct the program this afternoon. He explained that those attending the meeting will be provided an opportunity to come forward to the front of the room, five at a time, and address the Nevada Congressional Delegation with their view of healthcare reform. Each will have two minutes to make their statement. Then five more, until everyone has had their chance to speak up.
Dan and I will also be permitted to make a two-minute statement, just like everyone else.
The event will be video taped and the tape sent to the Nevada Delegation: Senators Harry Reid, John Ensign and Representatives Dean Heller, Dina Titus and Shelley Berkley.
The idea is to provide residents of Pahrump their opportunity to speak directly to those members of Congress.
Not a bad idea I thought. There is no other way I know of that residents of Pahrump can provide their input to Congress, unless they want to write.
So, being confined to two minutes to make my contribution I have been working on my “speech.” Here is my pitch:
Good afternoon to the Nevada Congressional Delegation.
It is regretful you cannot be here in Pahrump in person. But considering the acrimonious Town Hall Meetings being experienced in the nation your absence is understandable.
Here is my understanding of the facts with which we are faced:
The U.S. spends $7,129 per capita, twice as much as the other industrialized nations on health care.
Other industrialized nations have higher life expectancies, lower infant mortality and immunization rates.
Other nations provide comprehensive coverage to their entire populations, while the U.S. leaves 45.7 million completely uninsured and millions more inadequately covered. That 45.7 million is more people than the entire population of Canada.
The reason we spend more and get less than the rest of the world is because of our “for-profit insurance” system. Private insurers waste health dollars on things that have nothing to do with care: overhead, underwriting, billing, sales and marketing departments as well as profits and executive pay. Doctors and hospitals must maintain costly administrative staffs to deal with the multiple insurance bureaucracies. The cost consumes one-third (31 %) of money paid in premiums to the for-profit insurance companies. That leaves only 69 cents to pay medical claims.
Medical professionals in the group called “Physicians for a National Health Program” state that:
Single-payer financing is the only way to recapture this wasted money. The potential savings on paperwork, more than $350 billion per year, are enough to provide comprehensive coverage to everyone without paying any more than we already do.
Under the single-payer system, all Americans would be covered for all medically necessary services, including: doctor, hospital, preventive, long-term care, mental health, reproductive health care, dental, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs. Patients would have free choice of doctor and hospital, and doctors would have autonomy over patient care.
Physicians would be paid a fee-for-service according to a negotiated formulary or receive salary from a hospital or nonprofit HMO / group practice. Hospitals would receive a global budget for operating expenses. Health facilities and expensive equipment purchases would be managed by regional health planning boards.
A single-payer system would be financed by eliminating private for profit insurers replaced by non-profit insurers and recapturing their administrative waste. I understand that modest taxes would replace insurance premiums and out-of-pocket payments currently paid by individuals and business. That costs would be controlled through negotiated fees, global budgeting and bulk purchasing.
The current health care system by for profit insurance companies does not work. For profit insurers systematically “dump” their customers who they find are not profitable. They deny payment of medical claims on grounds of “pre-existing medical conditions” or for surgeries they can classify as “experimental.” Failing that they hike the premium payments beyond the reach of ordinary people or small businesses.
UnitedHealth, Aetna, Wellpoint, and CIGNA have accumulated corporate control of virtually all of the healthcare industry in the nation and have eliminated savings from competition. They constitute a monopoly. They also exercise far too much control over members of Congress.
I urge Congress to pass HR 676 and establish comprehensive non-profit insurance coverage for all American citizens.
I’m looking forward to hearing what the others who attend the meeting will have to say. I’m also curious about how many Democrats will show up and speak. Will anyone from the Nye County Democratic Central Committee appear and speak on behalf of the Democratic Party. Same curiosity exists for those of the Republican persuasion.
I’ll know in a few hours.
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