Pa. Health Care Plan: Single-payer Medicare for all
To the Times: As a member of the Pa. state Legislature, I would like to share the concepts behind my legislation H.B. 1688, The Pennsylvania Health Care Plan, a Medicare-for-All type of singlepayer plan. I would like to begin by reminding readers of the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence – “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
It is my belief that it is our government’s responsibility to ensure that these inalienable rights are protected and afforded to all citizens, and I know no better way to ensure all citizens these rights than to make sure that everyone has quality health care.
I can attest from current personal experience that the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness is much easier when we are healthy; for the past 15 months I have been treated for breast cancer.
House Bill 1688, to be reintroduced shortly, is NOT government-run health care. Health care providers and health care facilities would remain in the private sector. Our state government would be responsible for establishing a system in which a single public or quasi-public agency organizes the health care financing to support health care access. Cost controls (including administrative costs, pharmaceutical costs, etc.) and citizens having sufficient “skin in the game” are critical components of this plan.
It is interesting to note that there is quite a long list of industrialized countries that have universal health coverage (UHC). Currently, 32 countries provide UHC, with Norway adopting this type of coverage in 1912 and Israel offering UHC as recently as 1995.
UHC means that all people and communities can use the promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative health services they need, of sufficient quality to be effective, while also ensuring that the use of these services does not expose the user to financial hardship as defined by the World Health Organization.
UHC is the goal of H.B. 1688 and single payer is the mechanism to accomplish UHC in Pennsylvania.
In the U.S. Congress, similar legislation has been introduced in every session since 2003. In Pennsylvania, similar legislation has been introduced each session since 2005. Throughout the United States, single-payer type of legislation has been introduced in 20 states.
One concrete example of the benefits of single payer is keeping our workforce healthy.
As a former CEO of four different companies over a 28-year private sector career, I can state, unequivocally, that it is more costly to run a company when employees need to frequently call out sick. It is truly disruptive if a mom or a dad needs to miss work to care for a child because that child no longer has access to wellness care because their Medicaid or CHIP coverage has been reduced or eliminated.
It is equally disruptive if an employee needs to miss work to care for aging parents or other relatives because our older citizens can no longer afford access to care outside the home or professional home health care. The proposed “age tax” on insurance coverage would make this situation more common.
It is vitally important that we strive to be a healthy society, and a single-payer system can accomplish that goal efficiently and cost-effectively.
A single-payer mechanism will be less cumbersome to navigate and less costly to access than the proposed replacement ideas for the Affordable Care Act (ACA-aka Obamacare) — such as complicated tax credits and enhanced health savings accounts that are difficult for many citizens to comprehend and use.
As I have been working on this legislation, I have been asking: What do citizens want? What are citizens willing to pay for? How should it be structured?
At my recent 66th Town Hall in the Roxborough area of Philadelphia, attended by more than 65 people, citizens made it clear that they appreciate many of the benefits of the ACA. They would like to see many of those aspects continue under any revision or new plan, including: coverage of pre-existing conditions, the ability for a dependent to stay on a parent’s plan until 26 years of age and the enforcement of no lifetime caps.
Other coverage that constituents want includes dental, vision, and hearing coverage, as well as strong wellness and preventive care.
Over the remainder of this legislative session, I look forward to working with advocates and my colleagues to ensure that this legislation benefits all Pennsylvanians and is financially viable. Additional information, including the Pennsylvania Health Care Plan flow chart, can be found at www.PAHouse.com/DeLissio under “News.” (Click on “DeLissio Discusses Budget . . .” July 27, 2017.)
We need to ensure that all Pennsylvania citizens are healthy and indeed free to pursue life, liberty and happiness. The time is now and we can begin right here in Pennsylvania.