August 2009Potrero Hill Democratic Club Examines Pathways to Better Health Care CoverageBy Bonnie BaronLast month the Potrero Hill Democratic Club gathered together a group of experts and advocates to discuss ways to reform the nation’s expensive and inadequate health care system. Justin Davis, a Potrero Hill primary and urgent-care physician; longtime progressive activist Don Bechler, who chairs Single Payer Now; Catherine Dodd, a registered nurse and Mayor Gavin Newsom’s deputy chief of staff overseeing Health, Human Services, Aging Services and Children Youth and Family Services; and Linda Leu, organizer for Health Access and the Health Care for America Now campaign, spoke in front of more than seventy people at an event moderated by DeWitt Lacey, the club’s vice-president. According to Davis, corporate interests undermine the health care system. For-profit insurance companies’ primary goal is to make money for their investors. As a result, they limit health care access, and offer inadequate reimbursements to doctors. These policies, in turn, force physicians to see more patients, reducing the time spent with each one. More patients trigger the need for additional administrative staff to bill insurance companies. Davis would like to see the adoption of a single-payer system, or Medicare for All, which would eliminate for-profit insurers, and create a more equitable system. Bechler echoed the need for a single-payer system, favoring either California’s Senate Bill 810, authored by Mark Leno, or a national bill sponsored by Congressman John Conyers. Bechler emphasized that health care reform will not work unless costs are contained, an outcome that can only be achieved if for-profit insurers’ role is eliminated. According to Bechler, analyses of state and federal single-payer proposals indicate that they could save billions of dollars in administrative costs. “A single-payer system would be financed through employment-related taxes in lieu of premiums, co-payments, and deductibles, with lower net costs for most consumers.” Dodd described Healthy San Francisco, which is funded through employer contributions and patient premiums, and relies on community clinics to provide care. Under the program there are no insurance company middleman siphoning money. Healthy San Francisco has been able to take advantage of the electronic record keeping already in place for the MediCal system, keeping administrative costs and individual premiums, at an average of $288 a month, low. Leu described President Barak Obama’s three principles of health care reform: affordability, universality and choice. She said that the final bill that emerges from congress would likely include a public option, but that it was unclear what form that option would take. An audience member expressed concern that the federal proposal will not be affordable and equitable, referring to recent reports that premiums for those over 55 years old would be considerably higher than premiums for younger Americans. |
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