Explained in just three paragraphs, with a viable solution in paragraph four.
Having insurance is not the same thing as receiving care. Nothing proposed by the top-tier candidates of either party would end the thousands of horror stories of insurance companies denying needed care, access to specialists or diagnostic tests, even when recommended by a doctor.
Nothing in any of their plans, other than a vague reliance on the magic of the same market that created the present crisis, would hamper insurers from charging what they want - and pushing more families into bankruptcy from medical debt - or forcing them to self-ration care because of the cost.
As premiums have ballooned by 87 percent in the past decade, insurance-industry profits have climbed from $20.8 billion in 2002 to $57.5 billion in 2006. During that same period, health-care interests spent $2.2 billion on federal lobbying, more than did any other sector, and as of last month, had flooded the presidential candidates with over $11 million in campaign contributions to keep the present system intact.
There’s one alternative that would guarantee coverage for everyone, protect choice of doctor, promote cost savings by slashing administrative waste, and get the insurance companies out of the way. It’s called single-payer reform, as in an expanded and improved Medicare for all. The candidates should demonstrate the courage to talk about this one real reform.
Read the whole column by Rose Ann DeMoro here.
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