Doctors, nurses, medical students, and other health care professionals have a unique perspective on the flaws of our commercial health care system and the advantages that single-payer health care would bring:
Access to and Quality of Patient Care
Americans currently pay enough to fund universal, single-payer health care, but we do not enjoy the benefits. About 33 cents of every health care dollar is currently wasted on profits and high administrative costs before ever reaching a health care provider.
Currently, Americans have poor access to care: in comparison to patients in Canada’s single-payer system, they are less likely to have a regular doctor, more likely to have unmet health needs, and less likely to fill prescriptions. Besides limiting access, the current system also provides a lower standard of care. Many studies have shown that for-profit hospitals, clinics, and long-term care facilities have higher death rates and more reports of poor quality of care. A single-payer system would take these profits and wasteful administrative costs and use them to allow doctors, nurses, and other providers to remove barriers to care and improve patient care and outcomes.
Efficient and Equitable Financing for Providers
In a single-payer system all billing is centralized and taken care of by the government (like the current Medicare system), meaning that providers would not need to act as bill collectors. Instead of spending significant time filling out complicated paperwork that varies for every private insurance company, physicians would bill a single payer that would quickly reimburse them. Providers across all specialties would also be free to negotiate fair salaries and reimbursement rates.
A single-payer system would not only provide comprehensive health insurance to every American so they can afford to seek medical care, but also would reimburse providers simply and fairly for these services. Since everyone is covered, doctors would be able to provide high-quality health care to every patient regardless of ability to pay out-of-pocket, without worrying about losing money or compromising care.
Freedom in Clinical Decision Making
Health care providers are currently told what kind of care they can provide by a myriad of insurance companies that each impose different rules on what services are covered and under what circumstances. This form of managed care is meant to minimize payments, not provide the proven standard of care. In a single-payer system providers and their patients have greater clinical decision-making power to decide what tests or treatments are necessary, constrained by professional standards and not by profit motives.
Health Care Information and Planning
A single-payer model supports comprehensive data collection and analysis, which allows for improved tracking of outcomes, monitoring of progress in eliminating health disparities, and establishing best practice and standard of care guidelines. Much of this valuable information is now lost due to the fragmented nature of data collection by each individual insurance company.
Further Resources:
- “Access to Care, Health Status, and Health Disparities in the United States and Canada: Results of a Cross-National Population-Based Survey,” Karen E. Lasser et al, American Journal of Public Health, July 2006, Vol. 96 No. 7.
- “Costs of Health Administration in the U.S. and Canada,” Steffie Woolhandler et al, New England Journal of Medicine, September 21, 2003, Vol. 349 No. 8.
- “Paying for National Health Insurance - And Not Getting It,” Steffie Woolhandler et al, Health Affairs, Jul/Aug 2002, Vol. 21 No. 4.
- “Payments for care at private for-profit and private not-for-profit hospitals,” P.J. Devereaux et al, Canadian Medical Association Journal, June 8, 2004, Vol. 170 No. 10.
- “Medical Malpractice, Health Care Quality and Health Care Reform,” Gordon Schiff, MD and Oliver Fein, MD, PNHP New York Metro Forum Report #4, May 2003.