Serious Implications

Two major polls taken earlier this year show strong support for a single-payer health plan, or at least the concept of a strong government roll in lowering costs and covering all Americans. The polls are listed at PollingReport.com. The two polls are summarized below, with the polling question presented to respondents, followed by the results.

CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll. Feb. 18-19, 2009. N=1,046 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.
“In general, would you favor or oppose a program that would increase the federal government’s influence over the country’s health care system in an attempt to lower costs and provide health care coverage to more Americans?”

Favor: 72%
Oppose: 27%
Unsure: 1%

CBS News/New York Times Poll. Jan. 11-15, 2009. N=1,112 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.
“Should the government in Washington provide national health insurance, or is this something that should be left only to private enterprise?”

Government: 59%
Private Enterprise: 32%
Unsure: 9%

Americans pay more than twice as much as any other nation for mediocre health outcomes. We can no longer afford “for profit medicine.” There is no real competition under the current system. I’d be surprised if anyone, when presented with a serious illness of their own or a family member, shops around for the best price. I don’t think it happens in many cases, except, perhaps, for cosmetic surgery.

More likely, competition drives waste and redundancy. For example, if one hospital in the city has an MRI, then another competing hospital needs one too, lest it be regarded as technologically inferior. To pay for that redundant equipment, the doctors need to order a lot more MRIs than may be necessary. It’s a crazy system.

Senator Max Baucus is holding hearings this coming Tuesday May 12 on the future of health care plans in America. Last week, eight single payer advocates (Baucus 8), were shut out of the hearings and arrested when they wouldn’t go quietly.

What can we do? Healthcare-now.org suggests the following:

One immediate action you can take now is to call the Senate Finance Committee and ask them to include Marcia Angell, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, in Boston, Massachusetts and former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. Physicians for a National Health Program recommends her as a wonderful advocate to be included in the third and final Roundtable discussion in the Senate Finance Committee on May 12th. (202) 224-4515

Again, that number at the Senate Finance Committee is (202) 224-4515

Also, there’s a red, white, and blue “contact congress” widget in the sidebar (scroll down). Please contact your senators and ask them to pressure Baucus to open up the hearings.

Senator Baucus can also be contacted here.