Researched by Lizbeth Malmstead and Karene Schelert
Over 5,000 U.S. physicians signed an open letter calling on the President and Congress “to stand up for the health of the American people and implement a nonprofit, single-payer national health insurance system.” The letter follows a survey in the Annals of Internal Medicine last spring that shows 59 percent of U.S. physicians support national health insurance, a jump of 10 percent from five years ago. The letter argues that whereas most leading Democrats offer a “mandate model” of reform—under which the government would require people (or their employers) to buy private health insurance—this would merely augment the role and profits of private insurers, whose overhead is four times that of Medicare’s and whose efforts to avoid payment impose a costly paperwork burden on doctors and hospitals. “…single payer reform could realize administrative savings of more than $300 billion annually – enough to cover the uninsured, and to eliminate co-payments and deductibles for all Americans. Dr. Oliver Fein, signer of the letter, comments that the single-payer approach “would lift worries, provide care to all who need it and require no new money. It’s the only morally and fiscally responsible approach to take.”
“5,000 Doctors Challenge Private-Insurance System” Staff Writers, Kansas City InfoZine, October 8, 2008 http://www.commondreams.org/print/33211
Text of Letter: https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/307/t/5720/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=3304