Paying for Unibversal Health Coverage

We are the only industralized nation in the world without universal health care.
If we beat the drums long enough and loud enough, maybe the legislators will vote for what we need.

Re “Paying for Universal Health Coverage” June 7 editorial:
It’s obvious that if everyone who now has private health care insurance were to switch to Medicare for all, the absence of private insurers profits, and Medicare’s single set of rules, would result in less cost to care for that group than is spent now. These savings may be enough to pay for coverage of the 47 million people who now have no health care coverage.
That scenario would result in a single payer system; one set of rules, one payment standard and one place to summit bills for service. Obviously the private, for-profit insurance companies don’t want that to happen, because it would leave them only with patients who want coverage beyond what Medicare for All would pay for.
For-profit health care insurers and their proponents will say anything to prevent adoption of single payer for all. They will give large sums of money to the reelection campaign of any legislator who is willing to vote in favor of the private insurance option.

Melvin H Kirschner, MPH, MD