Docs Push for Universal Health Care
by kathy@USTogether.org Last updated 2003-08-13

Docs push universal health care

August 13, 2003 BY KATE N. GROSSMAN Staff Reporter of Chicago Sun Times

Nearly 9,000 doctors, including two former U.S. surgeons general and a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, have signed on to a drive to create a Canadian-style national health insurance system.

A group of top doctors led by Chicago doctor Dr. Quentin Young, a longtime advocate of national health insurance, drafted a proposal published in today's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, one of the country's top medical journals.

They are reigniting a decadelong battle and opposition remains intense. Despite publishing the article, the American Medical Association is opposed to universal health care and interest in Congress is minimal. Health care has figured prominently in the presidential race so far, but the JAMA article criticized reform plans by President Bush and the major presidential candidates, suggesting that none make universal coverage affordable.

A NATIONAL HEALTH SYSTEM SUPPORTERS SAY . . . *It would cover every American for all necessary medical care and serve as an expanded and improved version of Medicare. *It would save $200 billion annually by eliminating bureaucracy, overhead and profits of the insurance industry and reducing spending on marketing. Savings would cover the costs of the uninsured and universal drug coverage.

OPPONENTS COUNTER . . . *It will result in long waits for routine procedures, rationing of medicine, price controls and a slowness to adapt to technology.Sources: Physicians for a National Health Program; Health Insurance Association of America, the American Medical Association

Supporters of universal care hope to jumpstart a movement among doctors and, it appears, push the Democratic presidential candidates into embracing this issue.

"Obviously this is a political fight," said Dr. Gordon Schiff of Cook County's Stroger Hospital. "This will be a major issue in the election and there's a fight within the medical community . . . 8,880 doctors [who've signed the petition] is just the tip of the iceberg. We should increase that by a factor of 10 or 20. That's our prescription."

There are more than 836,000 doctors in the United States.

Schiff and others argue from both a moral and financial perspective, citing more than 41 million uninsured Americans and the death of 18,000 adults annually from lack of coverage. They also say their system would save at least $200 billion a year by eliminating the overhead and profits of the private insurance industry.

Under their proposal, patients could choose any doctor or hospital, with most hospitals remaining privately owned. The funding would come from the government, to be financed by combining current government health spending with "modest" new taxes. Supporters insist those taxes would be fully offset by reductions in insurance premiums and out-of-pocket spending.

"Health care is about the most human and intimate needs of people and families," said Dr. Warren Furey, the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's personal physician. "It can't be treated like a commodity."

Reaction from traditional opponents was swift and unequivocal. The Health Insurance Association of America called the proposal a "risky scheme" and the AMA president said "by implementing a single-payer system, the U.S. would be trading one problem for a whole set of others."

For example, president Donald J. Palmisano cited long waits for services and the development of a large bureaucracy that can weaken doctor and patient authority over clinical decision-making.