As a family physician in the San Fernando Valley for 47 years I've watched the health care system mutate from a mostly not-for-profit patient service, to a monster that maximizes profits and minimizes patient care. The L.A. Times article validates that statement.
Our people, including a majority of doctors and a large majority of nurses have concluded that we must have a single payer health-care system, with a single set of rules for everyone. This will not be socialized medicine and it will not cost more than the private, for-profit insurance system that we now have. What we have now leaves 47 million people without health insurance coverage and millions more with inadequate coverage.
The government funded system would be a form of Medicare. It would be not-for-profit, paid for by taxes, have one set of rules and use the health providers that we now use. If anyone wants coverage beyond what the Medicare-for-All provides, they would be free to buy additional insurance elsewhere. But the Medicare system would cover all essential needs as it does now for seniors.
I'm convinced that the Medicare-for-All would cost no more than the patchwork of private for-profit insurance companies spend now for only a portion of our population. Medicare-for-All would probably cost less.
Melvin H Kirschner, MPH, MD