HD 17 Representative, Dennis Apuan, addresses the Medicare Birthday Party in Colorado Springs on the 44th anniversary of the establishment of the most effective single payer healthcare program in the history of America.
46.6 million Americans, including 788,000 Coloradans lack health insurance.
The U.S. spends roughly twice as much per person as any other industrialized country in the world.
The U.S. ranks 37th in the world in health care.
http://www.who.int/whr2001/2001/archives/2000/en/
-The choice of doctors is restricted by the insurance companies.
-Over one-half of all personal bankruptcy filings are due to disastrous medical bills.
-Nationally, only 54% of workers are covered through their jobs, down from 66% in 1979.
-A national health insurance program could save approximately $150 billion on paperwork alone.
http://www.grahamazon.com/sp/whatissinglepayer.php
Advantages of the Single-Payer Health Coverage:
-Comprehensive medical benefits
-Choice of primary care provider and medical providers
-Health decisions made by patient and provider instead of HMOs
-Improved Health Planning
-Health coverage would be portable, not tied to employment.
-Eliminates the high (up to 33 percent) overhead cost of multiple private, for-profit insurances by including coverage for everyone in a single-risk pool (reducing administrative costs to 1-5%).
-Instead of hundreds of insurances with differing requirements (requiring increased office staff), providers would deal with only one form.
-The plan would be financed with a progressive tax, at less per-capita cost.
-Companies would avoid hassles of managing health care, and become more competitive without annual inflationary health costs.
-Consumers would pay less for goods and services that are inflated by businesses high health costs - e.g., currently $1,500 is added to the cost of each U.S.-made automobile due to health costs.
-U.S. Consumers , who now spend twice as much per capita as consumers in other developed countries (with poorer outcomes), would save as administrative health costs are reduced.
-Single-risk-pool coverage would permit negotiation of lower, bulk rates for medications.
-Increased U.S. life expectancy: Similar socioeconomic single-payer European countries enjoy average two-year longer life expectancies.
-The over-46 million uninsured Americans and 50 million more underinsured would have access to preventative care, without having to resort to delayed, crisis Emergency Room care at 4 to 5 times higher cost.
-Lessening demands on the nation's emergency rooms for primary care would stem the tide of closures of overburdened emergency rooms.
-Retirees would not face loss of health coverage by employers.
-Eliminates the profit motive that places priority on stockholders' profits, and creates a perverse incentive to deny health coverage to the ill or high-risk.
-A summary of Studies and Reports by the GAO, CBO and different states since the early '90s detailing the savings and efficiency of a Single Payer Health Care System.
http://www.dennisapuan.com/
dennis.apuan.house@state.co.us
303-866-3069
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3:28Athena Roe CSHCACby CSHCAC90 views
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