“Obama Urges Quick Action By Senators On Insurance.”

I wrote this response to the NY Times report because there are many ways that the for-profit insurers to try to scuttle a public plan for all. Their biggest argument is cost. Medicare already covers the sickest, most frequent users of the medical care system, the seniors. Not only will the people under 65 cost less to cover, they will all have coverage and preventive medical care. One set of rules will reduce the time and effort doctors' offices spend for billing, They will be well aware of what the single payer will or will not cover. The private insurance coverage is a hodgepodge of different rules and coverages. We are the only industrialized country in the world that doesn't have single payer health care and we are listed 37th in the health outcomes of our population.

N Y Times June 3 reports that “Obama Urges Quick Action By Senators On Insurance.”
In recent weeks I’ve been discouraged by the trend that universal health care proposals have taken. My sense was that the for-profit health care insurance companies were going to succeed with their plan to scuttle any government healthcare plan similar to Medicare that would cover patients under 65.
The private health insurance companies realize that not only the 46 million uninsured would be covered, but many people now covered by private health insurance would also switch to the public plan.
They paint a Medicare plan for under 65 year olds as a slow and inadequate provider that will be shunned by most doctors and make it easy for unscrupulous people to over utilize the system. As a physician who has been in practice since Medicare started, I realize that the scammers, with and without insurance, have always been there and will continue to be there whatever plan we finally adopt. Sadly, there are also a few doctors who scam the system, but most doctors try to provide services that are best for their patients.
The for-profit health insurance companies promise to change their ways, such as retroactive denials, rejection for a history of prior illnesses, etc. Those patients will be dumped into the public system.
What we need is a single payer, with one set of rules and coverage for all of us. Anyone who wants more coverage can buy it from the private providers.

Melvin H Kirschner, MPH, MD