In addition, burgeoning satellite businesses, such as
consulting firms and marketing companies, consume an
increasing fraction of the health care dollar. We endorse
a fundamental change in America's health care. The
creation of a comprehensive national health insurance
program, or NHI. Such a program which, in essence,
would be an expanded and improved version of Medicare,
would cover every American for all necessary medical
care. Most hospitals and clinics would remain privately
owned and operated, receiving a budget from the NHI to
cover all operating costs. Investor owned facilities
would be converted to not-for-profit status and
their former owners compensated for past investments.
Physicians could continue to practice on a fee-for-service
basis or receive salaries from group practices, hospitals
or clinics.
A national health insurance program would save at
least $150 billion annually by eliminating the high
overhead and profits of the private investor owned
insurance industry, and reducing spending for marketing
and other satellite services. Doctors and hospitals would
be freed from the concomitant burdens and expenses of
paperwork created by having to deal with multiple
insurers with different rules, often rules designed to
avoid payment.
During the transition to an NHI, the savings on
administration and profits would fully offset the
costs of expanded and improved coverage. NHI would
make it possible to set and enforce overall spending
limits for the health care system, slowing cost growth
over the long run.
A national health insurance program is the only
affordable option for universal, comprehensive
coverage. Under the current system, expanding
access to health care inevitably means increasing
costs, and reducing costs inevitably means limiting
access. But an NHI could both expand access and
reduce costs. It would squeeze out bureaucratic
waste and eliminate the perverse...