Single-payer is not the solution
There have been a series of letters trying to push singlepayer health care as the solution for Humboldt County. In my opinion, a single-payer system could be an absolute disaster for our area.
I believe that we would see an exodus of physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. Recruitment, which is challenging enough already, would be close to impossible.
There has been incredible progress made over the last 10 years in Humboldt County health care; this could all be unraveled by a fantasy journey into a single-payer system.
One of the foundations of single-payer health care is the incredible cost that would be required to fund such an endeavor. In addition to this burdensome cost, one of the core requirements for a single-payer system is that reimbursement for physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants would have to be cut dramatically. There is no other way to make the single-payer financial numbers work without severely decreasing medical provider pay. The vast majority of medical providers being recruited locally have substantial student loan amounts. With a single-payer system we would suddenly be faced with an unwinnable situation. We would have to recruit medical providers who are already facing exorbitant student loans, high taxes, expensive real estate, and travel challenges while we are asking them to take a significant decrease in salary. In this scenario, we would have difficulty recruiting both quality and quantity in our medical personnel, not to mention retaining our current medical providers.
The recent Mad River Hospital situation is unfortunate for all those involved, but the reality is that none of those medical providers are leaving our community. They are joining successful medical groups with either Open Door Clinic or St. Joseph Health Medical Group.
We absolutely need universal health coverage for all of us. We need to focus on the core tenets of Obamacare and not try to switch to a utopian model that will cause chaos and uncertainty. Medicare needs to stay focused on the elderly and the disabled. These groups deserve to have an insurance focused on their unique needs.
I have been successfully served by my health insurance for many years and I have no desire to give it up for a British-type National Health System model that does not work, especially in a country this size. Instead, we need to continue to focus on making insurance more affordable with the use of health savings accounts, reasonable deductibles, insurance subsidies, and tax breaks. MediCal has to remain well funded so those who most vulnerable and at a socioeconomic disadvantage have their medical needs covered.
We have a real opportunity in the next 10 years to develop a stable medical community for Humboldt County. Let us not ruin this opportunity by pursing a potential single-payer debacle.