Jonathan Kotch

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Jonathan Kotch March 12, 2009 Access to Care
Committee Partnership for a Health Durham
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PHYSICIANS FOR A NATIONAL HEALTH PROGRAM
WWW.PNHP.ORG
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18,314 Adult Deaths Annually Due to Uninsurance
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Rationing

• 1/3rd of Americans are inadequately insured
• They are often denied care
• They are sicker and they die younger
• Surplus medical care
• Excess hospital beds
• Excess hi-tech services
• Unnecessary operations

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Drug Companies Cost Structure
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NCGA 2008 Short Session

• H2688
• establish a Health Care Policy Council to make
  recommendations to the General Assembly and the
  Governor for improvements and enhancements that
  will result in appropriate and affordable health
  care for all in North Carolina.
• 49 sponsors and co-sponsors

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Studies Act of 2008

• H2431
• Study Group under the auspices of the NC
  Institute of Medicine to continue to study
  issues related to access to appropriate and
  affordable health care for all North
  Carolinians.
• Report approved unanimously
• Currently being edited prior to printing

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IOM Study Commission

• 11 NCGA members
• 5 Health care systems
• 1 Public health dept.
• 1 Small business
• Advocates
• Action for Children
• AARP
• MS
• HAC
• 1 Childrens clinic MD

• Dept of Insurance
• DMA
• BCBS
• NC Med. Soc.NC Hosp. Assoc.
• 1 County commissioners
• 1 AHEC
• 2 Foundations
• 1 health underwriters

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Obama Health Summit

• First person to speak at the close of the forum
  was the head of the American Health Insurers
  Plans, Karen Ignani. 
• The rest of those in attendance were mostly
  lobbyists from special interest groups.
• No single payer advocate was invited until
  thousands of messages reached the White House,
  including word that doctors were going to protest
  on the sidewalk.

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Single Payer Advocates Invited to the Summit
(Tuesday night for a Thursday meeting)

• Ollie Fein, President, PNHP
• Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Sponsor
• H676, Medicare for All
• 59 co-sponsors in addition to Conyers.
• Endorsed by 485 union organizations in 49 states

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H676 would cover every person for

• all necessary medical care
• prescription drugs,
• hospital,
• surgical,
• outpatient services,
• primary and preventive care,
• emergency services,
• dental,
• mental health,

• home health,
• physical therapy, rehabilitation (including for
  substance abuse),
• vision care,
• hearing services including hearing aids,
• chiropractic,
• durable medical equipment,
• palliative care and long term care.

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H676

• Ends deductibles and co-payments.
• Saves hundreds of billions annually by
  eliminating the high overhead and profits of the
  private health insurance industry and HMOs.
• A 1991 CBO study found that a single payer system
  in the US could cover all the uninsured at the
  (then) current level of spending or less because
  of reduction in administrative costs.

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Single-payer advocates have also been largely
silenced in the media. Amy Goodman, Host of
Democracy Now

• FAIR, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, found
  the views of advocates of single payer have only
  been aired five times in the hundreds of major
  newspaper, broadcasts and cable stories about
  healthcare reform over the past week.
• No single-payer advocate has appeared on a major
  TV broadcast or cable network to talk about the
  policy during that period.

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Regional Health Forums

• Greensboro, Mar. 31
• Sponsored by Gov. Perdue
• Doctors to protest on the sidewalk? Stay tuned.