Real health reform

Letter to the Editor
Laconia Citizen (NH) 3-24-09;
Concord Monitor (NH) 3-25-09

Increasing health care costs in the midst of deepening economic downturn is fueling the public quest for reform.

“Building on what we have now” retains the cause of runaway costs; for-profit insurance and mandates. Many studies confirm these “reforms” pose no fundamental change and do not result in savings. However, under the more comprehensively planned single payer system, as in HR 676 (The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act), prevention, chronic disease management, medical homes, electronic medical records, evidence based practices, all could be done better.

HR 676, the gold standard of reforms, is publicly funded, privately delivered. Physicians and health care providers will practice as they do now, not as government employees. Overall cost is reduced by changing the method of payment from a fragmented multi-payer “system” (1500 insurance companies, 27000 plans) to a single payer, the government. HR676 guarantees free choice of doctors and hospitals, not insurance plans. HR 676 puts patients first, not profits. It is universal, covers everybody, ends deductibles, co-pays, co-insurance, and put a stop to medical bankruptcies.

HR676 will free the American people of their health care misery.

Marcosa Santiago MD
Rumney NH