Tom Lehman wrote:
> I sense a lot of support for single-payer national health insurance.
>
>From a disability perspective I've supported single payer health insurance
for several reasons:
1. It would de-link health insurance from employment. Since private health care makes pre existing conditions and other exclusions (not to mention exorbitant monthly premiums) a part of the system, many disabled people must use the public health care system. Both are negatives when it comes to being able to take a job without fear of losing adequate health care. Another argument for this is that employers are abandoning or reducing the health care workers get so employment is no longer a guarantee of having health care coverage.
2.. Having a wide assortment of plans makes it impossible to find one that does everything one needs. There are loopholes in coverage in all of them. If everyone depended upon one system, it would certainly be possible to design a system that met everyone's needs and eliminate these profiteering underwriting practices that now thrive on a fragmented health care system.
3. Public health care for the poor is looked down upon by many providers. In California it is getting more difficult to find doctors who will take MediCal for instance. A National cohesive system would override this factor.
4. Public health care (now being for the poor, elderly and disabled) is politically subject to cuts as we have seen over the past years. If we were all in one boat, there would be less chance the national plan would suffer cuts.
Marta Russell