Answer: the Profits!

Yesterday I gave two examples of the impact of single-payer:

• Decisions will be more in the hands of medical teams, referring to the 17-year old girl who died the night before
  
• Common sense will still apply regarding medical and economic factors
  

So ... if economic factors still apply, then what is the difference in what we will have with single-payer national health insurance.?

Answer: profits will not influence decision-making!

By having non-profit national health insurance we will no longer have people in private health insurance companies making decisions partly based these topics:

• their bonus checks in their income and
• how well their company performs in terms of its profits and its stock market price

Impact of Single-Payer --- Two Examples

Example #1 - When we have single-payer national health insurance, decisions will be more in the hands of medical teams

Last night, December 20, it was reported by the Associated Press, as seen in Forbes and MSNBC, that 17-year old Nataline Sarkisyan " ... died just hours after her health insurance company reversed its decision not to pay for a liver transplant that doctors said the girl needed."

Example #2 - When we have single-payer national health insurance, common sense will still apply regarding medical and economic factors

Do not think that single-payer national health insurance will mean that a patient can always get everything that he or she wants in terms of medical care. In fact, there is a chance that there will be even more of an uproar of complaints about medical care then compared to now. There are certainly complaints in other countries. However, the average person in those other countries reports a very high degree of satisfaction with health care. They know that they and all of their neighhors have access to health care.

Just two days ago, December 19, the following Associated Press article was reported by MSNBC:

Very obese less likely to get kidney transplant

"Very obese people who need a kidney transplant are far less likely to get one than normal weight people, and when they do, their wait is an average of a year to 18 months longer, a new study found.

The reason seems to be both economic and medical. Very obese people have a greater risk for complications, and the transplant centers often must bear the additional cost of treating those problems."

For more information, see the remainder of the article.

Complexity of Current Health Care Financing -- Unimagineable

This morning I added the following list to "Single-Payer: Comparison to the Current System" under "Complex with Many Costs":

• The medical component of:
• Workers compensation programs
• Medical malpractice premiums
• Auto insurance

And I had thought the previous list was already long about where our tax dollars and out-of-pocket dollars are going for health care. It is truly unimagineable, a word not in the dictionary, but it should be!

Worker compensation programs are, of course, part of the complexity of covering health care, since that is a primary purpose of those programs.

Some people cry out about malpractice premiums. National health insurance automatically eliminates a major portion of the number of dollars for a possible lawsuit claim. Since health care for life is automatically provided, one cannot sue for "health care for the rest of the life of the injured party."

Inputs from others have been helpful. Yesterday as I was spreading the word, someone
strongly suggested that I look on my automobile insurance bill for the words "coordinated medical benefits" for a sizeable portion of my insurance bill. (He was correct!) He also pointed out that this additional health insurance will not likely pay anything if I have to go to the hospital due to an automobile accident. Why? Because this is secondary, not primary, health insurance. Not only that, some people might not even think to submit their health care bills to the automobile insurance company.

I tried a few years ago to document on a flow chart where all the money flows among the private health insurance companies and government programs. I didn't get very far; it was overwhelming. We need to move from complex to simple for the financing of health care!

Here is the link to the above web page.

Tip: people can channel their energy

As part of my "Spread the Word" effort, I spoke this afternoon, December 18, with a lady who looks forward to seeing the movie SiCKO, but she then expects to be both very mad and very sad afterwards.

She very much liked my suggestion that she use the energy of being upset in a useful way by taking positive actions to get non-profit national health insurance. Then I briefly mentioned the value and importance of writing a personally-composed note. I also mentioned that sending notes via the mail-box is fine, that I met with a mail-room supervisor in Washington, D.C. in early November and learned that there is often no hold-up of the mail at the mailroom.