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.

This week eight people, including three physicians, supporters of a single payer health plan, were arrested at the Baucus Finance committee hearings.

Update: Ed Schultz interviews Dr. Margaret Flowers, M.D.

I expect the day will come when health care is a right of all Americans, regardless of ability to pay, when health care is administered by those who care for people and are willing to do so for a good living, but who are not in the field to become millionaires. It will likely happen after a long, bitter struggle, like the struggle to end segregation. When it’s over, history may compare Senator Max Baucus to former Arkansas governor Orval Faubus, who blocked nine black kids, later known as the “Little Rock Nine” from entering an all white high school.

The following is an exerpt of a letter written by a doctor arested at Baucus’s committee hearings this past week. The letter in its entirety is available at Physicians for a National Health Program

Why we risked arrest for single-payer health care

By Margaret Flowers, M.D.

On May 5, eight health care advocates, including myself and two other physicians, stood up to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and the Senate Finance Committee during a “public roundtable discussion” with a simple question: Will you allow an advocate for a single-payer national health plan to have a seat at the table?

The answer was a loud, “Get more police!” And we were arrested and hauled off to jail.

The fact that a national health insurance program is supported by the majority of the public, doctors and nurses apparently means nothing to Sen. Baucus. The fact that thousands of people in America are dying every year because they can’t get health care means nothing. The fact that over 1 million Americans go into bankruptcy every year due to medical debt — even though most of them had insurance when they got sick — means nothing.

And so, as the May 5 meeting approached, we prepared for another one of the highly scripted, well-protected events that are supposed to make up the “health care debate” using standard tools of advocacy. We organized call-in days and faxes to the members of the committee requesting the presence of one single-payer advocate at the table of 15. Despite thousands of calls and faxes, the only reply — received on the day before the event — was, “Sorry, but no more invitations will be issued.”

We knew that this couldn’t be correct. We had heard Sen. Baucus say on that very same day that “all options were on the table.” And so, the next day, we donned our suits and traveled to Washington. We had many knowledgeable single-payer advocates in our group. And as the meeting started, one of us, Mr. Russell Mokhiber, stood up to say that we were here and we were ready to take a seat. And he was promptly removed from the room.

In that moment, it all became so clear. We could write letters, phone staffers, and fax until the machines fell apart, but we would never get our seat at the table.

I’ve written to my two senators, Levin and Stabenow, asking them to tell Baucus to open up the hearings. I hope others will do likewise. There’s a “contact congress” widget in the sidebar.

I thank Dr. Flowers and her seven colleagues for their sacrifice and service to our country.