Key congressional touts single payer health coverage

 

Tuesday, Mar 10,2009, 5:03:36 PM   Click:

Copyright: The Philadelphia Inquirer
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The
Wordcount: 546


Mar. 8 - Rep. John Conyers Jr. said yesterday that President Obama would not support a single payer universal health care coverage, as it has on his plate too - two wars and an economic crisis - and to adjust for health care reform health, it could get.

The Democrats of Michigan, speaking at Thomas Jefferson University, said the President to push through a public-private system, reform of health, maintenance of private insurance by employers, and expansion of a disease as the non-insured - if he has the chance. "

Obama has promised several times to pass health reform this year to cover all Americans, including 46 million uninsured.

Conyers came to Philadelphia to rally support for his bill, which could create a single system of payer - mostly for all diseases.

Under the bill, Americans would pay health care trust fund, possibly through payroll taxes, and funds to pay all hospitals, doctors and other health care providers for their services. Any of Ophthalmology long-term care would be included. Private insurers would no longer be necessary.

Conyers at the summit of health care in the White House Thursday, but he was a guest at the last minute. "It is very heavy with business health care interests - Big Pharma, insurance companies, people who do not want a single payer," he said.

He joked that "I really seduced the President. I did not say anything, "if at least five other times in small groups, others have sung the praises and called for a single payer system, he said.

"Why can not we start with the view that health care is an inherent constitutional right?" he asked yesterday. "If it is a right, it should not be based on work, if you have a job. So many people in America do not have jobs now, I do not need to you say. "

Conyers said one payer was used in all other major industrialized countries and is the only way to guarantee this right.

According to supporters, a single payer system would eliminate all barriers to care, to cover all medically necessary services to allow Americans to choose their doctor, and save enough money through a reduction of bureaucracy and administration to cover all the uninsured and pay for itself.

Physicians for a National Health Program, whose members delivered the literature says 14,000 American doctors, including two former surgeons general, support a single-payer system.

Ted Christopher, director of emergency medicine at Jefferson and a supporter of a single payer system, said he believed "there are tons of waste" in the current system, and emphasized the urgency of reform. "We see more and more uninsured every day," he said.

Critics say a single payer system would lead to rationing of health care, delays in entering hospitals and specialists, and shortage of doctors. They call it socialized medicine.

Replied Chuck Pennacchio, Executive Director of Health Care for All Pennsylvania, a pressure group of bills in the state House and Senate for a single payer universal system: "We have all already - the rationing of care and a shortage of doctors. Everybody knows that we do not have enough practice of family physicians. "

A doctor told the retirement Conyers that "single payer will never happen in my life."

Conyers, 79, attracted a big laugh when he replied, "You May not in your life, but I'll do it in mine."

Contact staff writer Michael Vitez at 215-854-5639 or mvitez@phillynews.com.

This is an information service of Thomson Business Intelligence Service © 2006. This content is only for your personal use, subject to the terms and conditions. No redistribution allowed.