Obama's Healthcare Change?

Incredulously, President Obama now advocates for an imperfect health care reform within the existing for-profit, private insurance model, although as an Illinois State Senator he supported a universal, single-payer system! Perhaps, as a state senator who did not receive industry campaign contributions, he was free to follow what is an obvious truth--that like all other wealthy nations, the United States must finally adopt a national health care program


That health care in the United States is a business-for-profit venture in unconscionable and is actually degrading to people seeking coverage. That private insurance corporations decide who does and does not get coverage and treatment, reminds me of Mafia protection schemes. It also reminds me of the pre-revolution system in China where a merchandise shipment traveling through various sectors had to pay a passage gratuity. The health insurance industry has positioned itself as middleman and claims about a thirty-percent commission for its bureaucratic inefficiency and lavish executive compensation. It is yet another example of an economic system that exploits basic human needs for the accumulation of wealth and power.


Every person in the United States is entitled to health care. The only way to handle the responsibility is through a single-payer program by either a federal agency, government corporation or utility, financed through tax revenues. Why does it not exist?


I believe the issue of a national health care program surfaced during the Progressive Era? It was suggested in the Truman Administration, but obviously went nowhere! If it is up to President Obama a national program will not materialize in his administration. So much for the Obama chant of "Yes! We can!" The flip-flopper is flopping once again! His "reform" is already a failure--that of nerve and faithfulness to what he earlier declared to be a self-evident truth. Until the insurance industry is excised from medical services, health care will remain unaffordable and millions of people will not have health coverage.


The failure to have a single-payer system rests not entirely on Obama. Congress is a co-conspirator! Until a public campaign contribution system is established, there will be no national health care program. Also, if the "winner-take-all" electoral system continues, any chance of a national system is unlikely. The problem is that Washington can be purchased for what is to corporations, lunch money! Add to these considerations, enduring Cold War ideology against any program that even hints at socialism, and one recognizes the blockages that prevent the enactment of a national health care program. The neo-cons have been hammering away on this theme since the Reagan Administration, with the acquiescence of a supine Democratic Party.

Without adequate media coverage, the public is confused over the meaning of single-payer national health care--what is it? The first point to clarify is that it is a financing arrangement, not a care delivery system. It would be like Medicare, but for everyone. So, it is a public or quasi-public agency that uses tax revenues to pay all necessary medical services: doctor, hospital, long-term care, dental, vision, mental health, prescription drug and medical supply costs--for everyone.

A single-payer program would actually provide free choice of doctors and hospitals, which is not available under the existing private insurance system. Delivery of medical care itself would remain largely private. Doctors would regain autonomy over patient care.

A single-payer program would eliminate private insurers and recapture their annual $400 billion administrative waste, on useless paperwork--not to mention the time and frustrations involved with it. There would be a small increase in taxes, but relative to existing premiums and out-of-pocket payments currently paid by individuals and business, it is inconsequential! Costs would be controlled through negotiated fees, global budgeting and bulk purchasing.

Physicians would be paid fee-for-service according to a negotiated formulary or receive salary from a hospital or non-profit HMO/group practice. Hospitals would receive a global budget for operating expenses. Regional health planning boards would manage health facilities and expensive equipment purchases. (From: Physicians for a National Health Program.)

"Everyone", to this writer, ideally, includes U.S. citizens and green card and work visa holders, anyone with a Social Security Number, anyone filing a federal tax return. Be that as it may, the moment is right for a mass movement to force Obama and the Congress to enact a single-payer program. With unemployment rising dramatically and the loss of health insurance that follows, with the total failure of the existing private health insurance system, the stage is set for action! Some commentators believe that if the change is not made now, it never will be. In this regard, Obama's position and the lies that used to justify it, will cloud his legacy. He is at the height of his popularity. Congress is under Democratic control, at least theoretically. If single-payer does not come to pass now, it will be for reason of Obama's failure of nerve and will put the lie to "Yes! We can".