Even Fox News is talking about Single Payer

In an article on the state of emergency care in the US, the author does a pretty respectful job of raising Single Payer as one proposed solution. That's a pretty big deal considering the article appears on the Fox News site. (I'm just posting the SP section. Click the headline to read the full article.)

In U.S Hospitals, Emergency Care in Critical Condition
Monday, May 01, 2006
By Don Snyder

...

Single-Payer Solution?

Doctors interviewed for this article unanimously decried the deterioration of emergency care and see a single-payer universal health plan as the answer. They point out that government programs could meet important health needs and operate with less overhead than private plans designed to make profits and satisfy stockholders.

For example, according to Dr. Viccellio, Medicare operates with a 3 percent overhead compared to private insurers who spend 30 percent on overhead.

Stony Brook University Hospital spends $15 million dollars a year on billing because the private plans are so different and criteria for payment so complex. A single payer system would eliminate the need for each hospital to operate its own billing department.

"I could vaccinate a lot of kids with the $15 million our hospital would save," said Dr. Viccellio.

However, the medical community is itself divided on this issue of universal health care.

In August 2003, the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association proposed a national health insurance program that had been endorsed by more than 8,000 doctors, including two former surgeons general.

The American Medical Association, the largest medical organization in the United States, immediately distanced itself from the article. It said that while JAMA was associated with the AMA, the publication is editorially independent. The AMA has historically opposed a national health insurance system.

AMA president Donald Palmisano, responding in 2003 to the JAMA proposal, acknowledged that "a solution is desperately needed." However, he said that a national health care system would "ration care, increase bureaucracy and demoralize doctors and patients."

Doctors who support a national health care plan acknowledge that a prerequisite for adoption of universal health care in the United States is a fundamental change in attitude by Americans.

"The commitment to health care is a commitment by an entire society," said Gardner. "I think at the moment Americans struggle with how much they are committed to health care for everyone."