What is a single payer program?

When the Affordable Healthcare Act was passed by congress in 2010, without reading it first, it caused much controversy, when it was discovered that Obama mandated everyone to carry insurance, whether they wanted it or not.  And it brought resistance among the masses, when it was discovered that insurance companies would be “ordered”, to provide basic coverage, no matter the cost.  This then led to the real Obama plan, the possibility of having everyone in a single pay program.  But Americans didn’t understand what all of that meant.

A single payer is a term used to describe a type of financing system.   It refers to one entity acting as administrator, or “payer.”  This is Obama’s plan, to break the insurance companies, and force everyone into such a plan.  In the case of health care, a single-payer system would be setup such that one entity—a government run organization would collect all health care fees, and pay out all health care costs.

Currently, in the US there are thousands of different health care organizations—HMOs, billing agencies, etc. By having so many different payers of health care fees, there is an enormous amount of administrative waste generated in the system, according to Obama.  In a single-payer system, all hospitals, doctors, and other health care providers would bill one entity for their services. This alone reduces
administrative waste greatly, and saves money, which can be used to provide care
and insurance to those who currently don’t have it.  Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it, but is it?

Access and Benefits

All Americans would receive comprehensive medical benefits under single payer. Coverage would include all medically necessary services, including rehabilitative, long-term, and home care; mental health care, prescription drugs, and medical supplies; and preventive and public health measures.

Care would be based on need, not on ability to pay.

But there is one thing you must know, a single payer is not the same as universal health care (it is possible to have either without the other).  A single-payer-universal-health-care plan for an entire population can be financed from a pool to which many parties—employees, employers, and the state—have contributed. wikipedia

The term “single-payer” thus only describes the funding mechanism—referring to
health care financed by a single public body from a single fund—and does not specify the type of delivery, or for whom doctors work. Although the fund holder is usually the state, some forms of single-payer use a mixed public-private system.

How does payment work?

Hospital billing would be virtually eliminated. Instead, hospitals would receive
an annual lump-sum payment from the government to cover operating expenses—a
“global budget.”  In other words, hospitals work at a loss, as government decides what they should receive.  Then there is a separate budget that  would cover such expenses as hospital expansion, the purchase of technology, marketing, etc.

Sounds nice, doesn’t it?  But if you sift through it all, it means more government red tape, not to mention all the different government agencies that will be handling each aspect of payment.  As for doctors, they will have 3 options for payment – fee-for-service, salaried positions in hospitals, and salaried positions within group practices or HMOs. Fees would be negotiated between a representative of the fee-for-service practitioners (such as the state medical society) and a state payment board. In most cases, government would serve as administrator, not employer.  No matter how you look at it, government would control doctor pay.

pnhp.org

Financing broken down:

The program would be federally financed and administered by a single public insurer at the state or regional level. Premiums, copayments, and deductibles would be eliminated. A single payer system as embodied in national legislation (H.R. 676) could be financed in several ways. One progressive option would be to fund it with a combination of existing federal and state revenues for health care, a payroll tax on employers (4-7 percent, much less that what employers pay today to provide less secure coverage), a 6 percent tax on unearned income, a 6 percent surtax on the highest 5 percent of income-earners, and a small tax on financial transactions.  pnhp.org

Administrative Savings

Harvard researchers estimate that administrative costs consume 31 cents of every health care dollar in the U.S. Slashing that to Canadian levels would save $400 billion annually, enough to cover all the uninsured and to improve coverage for everyone else. A study by the General Accounting Office estimated that single payer would save 10 percent on total health care costs by slashing administrative waste, enough to cover all the uninsured.  And it’s Obama’s plan to do away with private insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid, to push everyone into this system.  Since when can government butt in on a private industry, and control what they do?

And now for the Obamacare propaganda punchline:

Obama wants us to believe that each person regardless of ability to pay would receive high-quality, comprehensive medical care, and the free choice of doctors and hospitals. Individuals would receive no bills, and copayment and deductibles would be eliminated. Most people would pay less overall for health care than they pay now.  No one is going to get the same type of care, if they can’t pay, it’s impossible to fund such a plan with so many on the system.  Yet members of Congress won’t be on the plan we are on.  That in itself tells us something, doesn’t it?

Actually, this is false, as doctors are leaving the medical field in droves, due to the already cuts they are receiving from Medicare payments.  Remember, Obama took the $716 billion which was saved in Medicare, which should remain there for future payments, to implement his healthcare law.

Obamacare and the lies over doctors’ wages:

Obama also wants us to believe that doctors’ wages will remain unchanged.  That is a lie, as there has already been cuts in their pay, with another due shortly, in the automatic cuts because congress failed to act in passing a budget.  The need for a “wallet biopsy” before treatment would be eliminated; time currently wasted on administrative duties could be channeled into providing care; and clinical decisions would no longer be dictated by insurance company policy.

This is where his panel of “18” comes into play, making all our decisions for us, whether or not we receive care.

Hospital payments:

Now this is the good part.  Obama wants us to believe that under his plan, there would be no need for all those administrators, and billing people to take up all that spending, therefore, not many hospitals will have to close.  Wake up Obama, payment to hospitals have been cut, and many are closing.  There will still remain many millions of people who don’t qualify and won’t be able to afford your plan, therefore hospitals will still be writing off the costs.

Eliminating private insurance:

Now this is Obama’s main goal – eliminate the need for private insurance.   One single payer bill currently in the House (H.R. 1200) would provide one percent of funding for retraining displaced insurance workers during its first few years of implementation.  How are you going to retrain those workers, when already we have over 1/2 of the country out of work, there are no jobs?

If you believe this crock of bull, then there’s no hope for this country.  We can’t take 4 more years, vote him out of office.

• Posted in: Business ♦ Current Events ♦ Healthcare ♦ Politics
• Tagged: Affordable Healthcare Act, President Barack Obama, single payer program