Experts Share Views on Health Care Issues
2009 May 19
The Dallas Morning News recently asked 11 Texas health care experts, including Anne Dunkelberg, Associate Director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, to comment on a variety of issues regarding health reform including single-payer vs. market-based approaches to health care; preventive care; the role of employers in providing health care; and making health insurance affordable. The diverse panel represents a broad spectrum of opinion on national health reform.
Single Payer Advocates: I agree — as does President Obama — that single-payer is clearly the way you would build a rational system from scratch. But as a poltical reality, dismantling the private insurance market overnight would not be supported by millions of Americans. In fact, current proposals reassure Americans that if they like their staus quo they can keep it.
It is CRITICAL, though, that everyone who wants health care for all, including single-payer advocates, weigh in strongly on the need for health reform to give consumers the freedom to choose non-profit and public insurers for their health care. True consumer choice requires that we have that option. And, if delivery models that are not profit-driven do a better job than their for-profit counterparts, then consumers will choose them.
A system that provides health care security could be delivered under a single-payer system like Canada’s, under our current system which includes a major role for the health insurance industry alongside large public insurers (Medicare and Medicaid), or under an infinite number of variations in between the two.
Consumers deserve the opportunity to choose among non-profit, for-profit, and public options for coverage to see which provides superior care and service. The suggestion by some members of Congress that that only private for-profit insurers should deliver care under national health reform is as extreme and unrealistic a proposal as dismantling the private insurance industry overnight to create a single-payer system.