A rally for single-payer healthcare

    Advocates for a single-payer health system are gathering in Philadelphia Saturday to promote their path toward universal health coverage. Supporters of the plan want to create a national insurance plan that guarantees health coverage for every citizen.

    Advocates for a single-payer health system are gathering in Philadelphia Saturday to promote their path toward universal health coverage. Supporters of the plan want to create a national insurance plan that guarantees health coverage for every citizen.

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    Transcript:
    Supporters want a national insurance plan that guarantees health coverage for every citizen.

    Tsou: Single payer means we would basically collect revenue – usually by the government through taxes and other fees — and then we would pay directly doctors and hospitals to provide services on behalf of the American people.

    Dr. Walter Tsou is a board member for Physicians for a National Health Program – one of several groups sponsoring the town hall meetings. A single payer plan eliminates private insurance companies from the health system, and Tsou says that would rein in inefficiencies and health care costs.

    Tsou: In Taiwan — and other countries that have single payer — it’s none of this incredible paperwork and hassle that we have in America today.

    Michigan Congressman John Conyers is set to discuss his single payer legislation. He wants to expand the Medicare program to include all Americans.

     

    Single-payer advocates are gathering Saturday at 10:30 in the Hamilton Building at Thomas Jefferson University, and again at 1 pm at the Penn Newman Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

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