What Is National Health Insurance?

Important Facts | Ten Reasons We Need National Health Insurance

IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT THE HEALTHCARE CRISIS

• The U.S. spends more on health care than any other nation, yet more than 60 million people are without health insurance sometime each year, and many millions more are insecurely covered.
• 15-30% of private insurance companies' premiums are wasted on marketing, excessive CEO salaries, profits, bureaucracy and paperwork, rather than being spent on health care services.
• Hospitals and doctors spend billions of dollars dealing with insurance companies, money that could be better spent on health care. And patients waste endless frustrating hours trying to get their claims properly paid.
• Nearly one million Americans each year, many with health insurance coverage, file for bankruptcy because of inability to pay their medical bills, 75% of them with health insurance.
• Health care costs are rising at an annual rate of 10% or more, far above the inflation rate of anything else we buy, and far above the growth in wages.
• The fact is, for the same amount of dollars we are paying to cover 85% of the population poorly, we could cover everybody with a first-class system.
• Even though the United States spends two trillion dollars on health costs, nearly $400 billion never reaches the people of this nation; instead this money is used for administrative expenses and to pay shareholders executives. 15-30% of private insurance companies' premiums are wasted on marketing, excessive CEO salaries, profits, bureaucracy and paperwork, rather than being spent on health care services.

TEN REASONS WE NEED NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE

1. Everybody In, Nobody Out. Universal means access to health care for everyone, period.

2. Portability. If you are unemployed, or lose or change jobs, your health coverage stays with you.

3. Uniform Benefits. No Cadillac plans for the wealthy and Pinto plans for everyone else, with high deductibles, limited services, caps on payments for care, and no protection in the event of a catastrophe. One level of comprehensive care for everyone, regardless of the size of your wallet.

4. Prevention. By removing financial roadblocks, a universal health system encourages preventive care that lowers an individual's ultimate cost and pain and suffering when problems are neglected and societal cost in the over-utilization of emergency rooms or the spread of communicable diseases.

5. Choice. Most private insurance restricts your choice of providers and hospitals. Under national health insurance patients have a choice, and the provider is assured a fair payment.

6. No Interference with Care. Caregivers and patients regain their autonomy to decide what's best for a patient's health, not what's dictated by the billing department. No denial of coverage for pre- existing conditions or cancellation of policies for "unreported" minor health problems.

7. Reducing Waste. One third of every private health insurance dollar goes for paperwork and profits, compared to about 3% under Medicare, the federal government's universal system for senior citizen healthcare.

8. Cost Savings. A guaranteed health care system can produce the cost savings needed to cover everyone, largely by using existing resources without the waste. Taiwan, shifting from a U.S. private health care model, adopted a similar system in 1995, boosting health coverage from 57% to 97% with little increase in overall health care spending.

9. Common Sense Budgeting. The public system sets fair reimbursements applied equally to all providers, private and public, while assuring that appropriate health care is delivered, and uses its clout to negotiate volume discounts for prescription drugs and medical equipment.

10. Public Oversight. The public sets the policies and administers the system, not high priced CEOs meeting in private and making decisions based on their company's stock performance needs.