Gary Benjamin
By Diane Bukowski
The Michigan Citizen
DETROIT - As the City of Detroit, the Detroit Public Schools, and even the Big Three automakers say the skyrocketing cost of health insurance has exacerbated their fiscal woes, organizers are stepping up a campaign for state-sponsored universal health care in Michigan.
"Employers everywhere are saying you've got to get the health care monkey off our backs because we can't compete," said Gary Benjamin of Michigan Legal Services. "Before a single car rolls off the assembly line, $1,500 of its cost goes into health care for the auto workers. In Japan, that cost is $500."
Benjamin brandished thick files full of studies on health care in California, Vermont, Maine and other states.
"These studies all show that there's enough money to finance health care for everyone already in each state's system," he said. "Canadians spend less than 10 percent of their gross domestic product on health care for 100 percent of their residents under a national health care system. But the U.S. spends 15 percent of its GDP on health care for 85 percent of the population, with the rest going uninsured."
Benjamin and others are calling on Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm to establish a commission to study health care financing and establish affordable health care for all.
That includes the Michigan Universal Health Care Access Network, the Green House, numerous government bodies, the Henry Ford Health System and Paul Hillegonds, president of Detroit Renaissance.
"Because of the manner in which the health care delivery system is funded, and because of the administrative costs of the system as it is presently structured, the money is ineffectively and unwisely spent . . . and our citizens are increasingly losing coverage because of the cost of insurance to employers and government," says MichUHCAN's Michigan Health Care Finance Resolution.
Benjamin said 25 to 35 percent of every health care dollar goes to administrative costs, with an additional 19 percent for pharmaceuticals, while the national, publicly-run Medicare system spends less than 3 percent on administration.
At the same time, he noted, over 1.4 million Michigan residents have no health care coverage, and, nationally, an estimated 18,000 people die because they have no health insurance.
Many city councils in Michigan have already passed MichUHCAN's resolution, including those of Detroit, Farmington Hills, Ferndale, Mt. Pleasant, Pleasant Ridge, Madison Heights, Hamtramck, Van Buren Township, Ann Arbor, Southfield, Royal Oak and Westland.
The Wayne and Sanilac County Boards of Commissioners, the Michigan Democratic Convention, the Wayne County Medical Society and the Henry Ford Health System have also endorsed the measure, along with 22 other groups and individuals.
"Access to quality health care is of crucial importance to Detroit residents and to the workforce that will support the revitalization of the city," Hillegond said.
The board of Detroit Renaissance is made up of executives from most of Detroit's largest corporations.
"The fragmented, cottage industry nature of health care does not serve the uninsured and underinsured well," Hillegonds went on. "The prevalence of diabetes, asthma, low birth weight babies, and other serious health issues is both a social justice issue and an economic disincentive for businesses to locate in Detroit."
A study Michigan Legal Services sent to Granholm in 2003 estimated there is a total health care pot of at least $25 billion in Michigan, including $13 billion in premiums paid to HMO's and insurance companies, $10 billion in state appropriations, and over $1 billion in services that hospitals provide for free.
The study said that pot is enough to provide an annual premium of $2,600 for everyone in Michigan, in a single payer state-wide plan. That amount is comparable to what is currently paid into most insurance plans.
In 2002, Maine Governor John Baldacci established the statewide Dirigo Health Plan, which provides insurance for small employers and workers making less than $55,000 a year, on a sliding scale fee basis, and free coverage for the unemployed.
The plan does not supplant private insurers entirely, but sets price controls on private insurance premiums and restrictions on new construction and equipment purchases by private hospitals.
The MichUHCAN resolution goes further, asking for a state health insurance system that is "affordable; cost efficient; provides comprehensive benefits; promotes prevention and early intervention; eliminates disparities in access and in mental health care; provides continuity of care (is portable from one job to another); protects consumer choice; and, is easy to use."
On Tues. May 24, at 6:30 p.m., the Union of the Uninsured and Underinsured will present a community health care forum featuring the heads of the Detroit and Wayne County health departments, a representative of the Detroit and Wayne County Health Care Authority, and advocates of universal health care. For literature and more information, contact Gary Benjamin at 313.964-4130.
E-mail: dbukowski at michigancitizen.com
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