Rallying for a single-payer plan
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
Advocates for a publicly funded state health plan rallied at the Capitol in Harrisburg today. The crowd came to support legislation that proposes a new 3 percent tax. Businesses and individuals would pay into a health care trust fund, and the government would use that money to pay for healthcare across the Commonwealth.
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The single-payer idea is not a big part of the budget or health reform debate in Harrisburg right now. But supporters say the movement is making progress. Chuck Pennacchio leads Healthcare for All Pennsylvania.
Pennacchio: Everyone, everyone to a person said we could never get state Senator Don White, who is the gatekeeper for health care in the state senate to give us a hearing. Don White is giving us a hearing before Banking and Insurance in the fall.
A crowd gathered on the stairs at the capitol building in Harrisburg Thursday in support of the legislation.
Advocates say their idea is slowly winning over business owners and Republicans.
Mike Stout owns a print shop near Pittsburgh. He provides health care benefits to his employees but expects to pay 20 or 30 percent more this year. He says a state-level, single payer plan makes better business sense.
Stout: It's more cost effective and you get better care. Thirty percent of the health care dollar in the United States and the state Pennsylvania goes toward administrative fees. Under single-payer it will be less than 5 percent.
Stout says health care should not be entrusted to for-profit companies, and he and other single-payer advocates want to eliminate the private health insurance industry.
Stout says he's not discouraged that Pennsylvania lawmakers are not seriously debating a single-payer plan this legislative session.
Stout: We're gonna to keep coming back here with more and more people until these legislators start listening to us just like they listen to the lobbyists that give them all their gifts and campaign contributions. We're going to come back here over and over until we have health care for all.
Thank you to WHYY for covering the most important issue and the only solution to our state and national health care crisis. Too many people can not afford healthcare and too many providered are frustrated and at wits end by the hours spent begging insurers for patient coverage, by spending hours having to justify necessary treatment, by listening to one after another patient tell their story of how they can not afford their medicines or how they have waited so long to be diagnosed with a condition that should have been treated much sooner because they did not have the co-pay to afford the visit, or were afraid they couldn't aford the co-payment for the treatments. This for-profit healthcare system is killing literally killing our people. Single payer is the only solution. No co-pays, no deductibles, everybody in, nobody out!
Good for WHYY for covering the June 11th rally for a Single Payer Healthcare Reform Option.
We want every Pennsylvanian of every age, income and medical condition to get basic, decent medical attention when they need it.
People should not have to lose their homes or go on welfare when faced with injury or death
Thank you for finally focusing on a single payer story at length! With so many other countries using this method of provider reimbursement, and doing so for nearly 50% less than the US – all while surpassing health outcomes and quality healthcare delivery – it's great to see WHYY having its reporters look at this option.