PNHP Massachusetts Chapter Resolution
PNHP MASSACHUSETTS CHAPTER RESOLUTION
Resolution to support Single Payer National Health Insurance
(Improved and Expanded Medicare for All, as currently proposed in US HR 676 and the MA Single Payer Bill)
We believe all persons deserve access to high-quality healthcare.
We believe our healthcare dollars should be used cost effectively.
We support the creation of a single-payer system because it assures universal coverage of all medically necessary services while containing costs by minimizing bureaucracy.
This approach recognizes and best addresses the following defects in our current health care system:
- The number of Americans without health insurance now exceeds 50 million, while tens of millions with insurance have coverage so inadequate that a major illness will lead to financial ruin.
- The complexity and fragmentation of the current system imposes needless burdens on patients and practitioners and adds costs, hassles and harms to the provision of care.
- Relying on private insurance companies diverts billions of dollars from the provision of health care towards excessive profits and administrative waste.
- The current system is lethal and unequal, with 45,000 excessive deaths annually due to lack of insurance and significant disparities in access and quality of care.
The US Government Accountability Office estimates the savings from converting to a single-payer system at over 10% of current health spending (approximately $400 billion in 2010)—enough to cover the uninsured and improve coverage for all.
The creation of a publicly funded national health program will guarantee universal insurance and will protect the doctor-patient relationship, assure patients free choice of doctors and allow physicians free choice of practice settings.
Therefore, we support US House and Senate bills that would create a national single-payer system and we support the MA Single Payer Bill.