Letter to Editor in Support of HB 1273, CO Guaranteed Health Care Act
| By Michele S - Mar 2nd, 2009 at 11:12 pm EST |
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Categories: Equality / Civil Rights, Peace & Social Justice, Economic Fairness & Security, Affordable Healthcare, Consumer and Worker Protection
Categories: Equality / Civil Rights, Peace & Social Justice, Economic Fairness & Security, Affordable Healthcare, Consumer and Worker Protection
Following is a draft letter to the editor in support of HB09-1273, Colorado Guaranteed Health Care Act -- hearing scheduled for March 18 at 1:30pm. Adapt it to write your own letter.
Editor:
A large contributor to the U.S. crisis of health care financing and delivery is the administrative bureaucrcacy of profit-first multi-payer insurances that siphon 31% of our health care dollars to profits and excessive administrative costs. The Wall St. Journal (2-14-07) has reported that insurance middlemen in the $20 billion annual business of 'Denial Management' are employed solely to search for reasons to delay, deny or renege on health claims. The Journal reports that one-third of U.S. claims are initially denied, further contributing to inflationary administrative costs.
Journalist T.R. Reid contrasts U.S. health care with that in 5 other industrialized nations in his documentary 'Sick Around the World.' None of the 5 countries he visited - Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan and Great Britain - utilizes for-profit insurance; all pay on average half as much per capita for health care as the U.S., and all have better health care outcomes, longer lives, etc.
Rather than a quality-centered health care system, the U.S. profit-centered model of health care has compromised our primary care infrastructure. At least one-hundred overburdened U.S. emergency rooms have closed their doors over the past decade. It was recently reported that University Hospital became the 8th area facility to close its psychiatric unit; at the same time, it maintains a new 6-story building on the Fitzsimmons campus dedicated solely to billing, processing more than 1,000 different forms for over 1,000 different insurers.
Over 20 federal and state studies, including the Lewin Group study of Colorado proposals in 2007, have demonstrated billions of dollars of savings in health care spending, as well as the ability to provide comprehensive health care for all, utilizing a single-risk-pool publicly financed and privately delivered health care system.
The Colorado Guaranteed Health Care Act, HB09-1273, has been introduced to create the structure for comprehensive reform that guarantees health care for all Coloradans. In addition to streamlining administrative health costs, HB09-1273 stipulates annual negotiation of fair reimbursement to all providers; negotiation of prescription drug and medical equipment costs; support for education to address primary care, nursing and other provider shortages; and provision of retraining for displaced workers.
In the place of inadequate private insurances that have seen premium increases of more than 100% since 2000, the single public-payer model of health insurance separates health coverage from employment, establishes a sliding-scale premium based on income, and permits full choice of health care providers. Read more about the proposed bill at Health Care for All Colorado. We must begin a dialogue with our legislators about meaningful health care reform.
Editor:
A large contributor to the U.S. crisis of health care financing and delivery is the administrative bureaucrcacy of profit-first multi-payer insurances that siphon 31% of our health care dollars to profits and excessive administrative costs. The Wall St. Journal (2-14-07) has reported that insurance middlemen in the $20 billion annual business of 'Denial Management' are employed solely to search for reasons to delay, deny or renege on health claims. The Journal reports that one-third of U.S. claims are initially denied, further contributing to inflationary administrative costs.
Journalist T.R. Reid contrasts U.S. health care with that in 5 other industrialized nations in his documentary 'Sick Around the World.' None of the 5 countries he visited - Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan and Great Britain - utilizes for-profit insurance; all pay on average half as much per capita for health care as the U.S., and all have better health care outcomes, longer lives, etc.
Rather than a quality-centered health care system, the U.S. profit-centered model of health care has compromised our primary care infrastructure. At least one-hundred overburdened U.S. emergency rooms have closed their doors over the past decade. It was recently reported that University Hospital became the 8th area facility to close its psychiatric unit; at the same time, it maintains a new 6-story building on the Fitzsimmons campus dedicated solely to billing, processing more than 1,000 different forms for over 1,000 different insurers.
Over 20 federal and state studies, including the Lewin Group study of Colorado proposals in 2007, have demonstrated billions of dollars of savings in health care spending, as well as the ability to provide comprehensive health care for all, utilizing a single-risk-pool publicly financed and privately delivered health care system.
The Colorado Guaranteed Health Care Act, HB09-1273, has been introduced to create the structure for comprehensive reform that guarantees health care for all Coloradans. In addition to streamlining administrative health costs, HB09-1273 stipulates annual negotiation of fair reimbursement to all providers; negotiation of prescription drug and medical equipment costs; support for education to address primary care, nursing and other provider shortages; and provision of retraining for displaced workers.
In the place of inadequate private insurances that have seen premium increases of more than 100% since 2000, the single public-payer model of health insurance separates health coverage from employment, establishes a sliding-scale premium based on income, and permits full choice of health care providers. Read more about the proposed bill at Health Care for All Colorado. We must begin a dialogue with our legislators about meaningful health care reform.
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