Required Reading: Single Payer Health Care the Only Solution

This concise New York Times op-ed says it all. It's written by David U. Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler, professors of medicine at Harvard and co-founders of Physicians for a National Health Program. Let's hope our legislators read it before they decide to go down the same unworkable path that other states have traveled to utter failure to provide effective universal coverage. Excerpt:

The “mandate model” for [health care] reform rests on impeccable political logic: avoid challenging insurance firms’ stranglehold on health care. But it is economic nonsense. The reliance on private insurers makes universal coverage unaffordable.

With the exception of Dennis Kucinich, the Democratic presidential hopefuls sidestep an inconvenient truth: only a single-payer system of national health care can save what we estimate is the $350 billion wasted annually on medical bureaucracy and redirect those funds to expanded coverage. Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Edwards and Mr. Obama tout cost savings through computerization and improved care management, but Congressional Budget Office studies have found no evidence for these claims.

In 1971, New Brunswick became the last Canadian province to institute that nation’s single-payer plan. Back then, the relative merits of single-payer versus Nixon’s mandate were debatable. Almost four decades later, the debate should be over. How sad that the leading Democrats are still kicking around Nixon’s discredited ideas for health reform.

Here's what you can do right now to help New Mexico's legislators see the light on health care coverage:

From The Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign:

Urge Your Legislators to Co-Sponsor the Health Security Act! We're excited to let you know that the Health Security Act will be introduced in the coming legislative session (January 15 to February 14, 2008). The legislation will be sponsored by Rep. Bobby Gonzales in the house and Sen. Carlos Cisneros in the senate.

Please call your legislators NOW and urge them to co-sponsor the Health Security Act. If possible, call them in the next day or two and let them know that the Health Security Act will be available for them to sign at the health care briefing on Monday. Rep. Gonzales and Sen. Cisneros will have the bills at that time. (New rules, by the way, make all this possible.) After Monday, the bills will be available for signatures in the house and senate clerks' offices. It is so very critical to have a lot of signatures on the legislation to show broad support among legislators.

If you're not sure who your legislators are, you can call your county clerk or access the legislator search page on the legislature's website: https://legis.state.nm.us/lcs/legislatorsearch.asp.

Reminder: Legislative Health Care Briefing on Monday: This Monday, December 17, the Legislative Council will host a special health care briefing for all legislators from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM in Room 307 at the State Capitol in Santa Fe. This meeting is open to the public, and we encourage you to attend.

At 9:30 AM Dr. Mary Ruggie, Harvard professor of comparative health policy, will present an overview of health care reform and various state efforts. At 10:45 AM Dr. Deborah Chollet of Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. will present the data from Mathematica's updated report. This will include a cost comparison of the governor's proposal to the other originally studied models, including the Health Security Act. Apparently "adjustments" have been made to reflect updated data, including possible Medicaid cuts.

The Real Study Numbers: Several people (including one legislator) have been presenting inaccurate information about the results of the Mathematica study made available in July. They claim that all the models cost in the $6 billion range and that the differences between them are minimal.

This is completely untrue. To recap:

In the first year of operation (according to the July 2007 Mathematica report), only the Health Security Act costs less than the current system. The other models cost more than the current system. By 2011 (five years later), the Health Security Act is still the only one that results in savings over the current system. The others increase health expenditures.

In the fifth year of operation (2011 in the study), the Health Security Act costs $698 million to $887 million less than the current system (meaning that health expenditures are reduced by $698 million to $887 million). In contrast, the Health Choices model costs $336 million to $383 million more than the current system, and the Health Coverage model costs $70 million more than the current system.

In sum, the Health Security Act costs over $1 billion less than Health Choices, and $768 million-$1 billion less than Health Coverage. These are substantial differences that cannot be ignored!

If you have any questions, contact Josette at 505-771-8763 or jhaddad@cableone.net. Or visit our website at www.nmhealthsecurity.org.