Letter to Tom Daschle from Dr. Quentin Young regarding National Health Care.

[Cleita]

December 8, 2008

Mr. Tom Daschle
Secretary-designate, Health and Human Services
Transition Health Policy Team
Washington, DC

Dear Mr. Daschle,

Physicians for a National Health Program respectfully requests an opportunity for one or more of
our members to meet with your health policy team to make the case for the swift enactment of a
single-payer national health insurance plan (as embodied in the U.S. National Health Insurance
Act, H.R. 676, which currently has the support of over 90 member of Congress) on a medical,
moral and economic basis.

Candidly, we are alarmed by some comments by members of the Senate and by the Obama
transition team that suggest that the single-payer option is being excluded from consideration —
is “off the table” — in the health reform debate. We believe single payer is not only the best
solution, but the only effective solution to our health care crisis.

Single-payer health reform, sometimes characterized as an improved “Medicare for All,” is the
only reform model that offers $400 billion in annual savings in administrative costs. It is the only
approach that contains effective cost-containment provisions, such as bulk purchasing and global
budgeting. Such economies would allow for expanding health coverage to everyone — with no
co-pays or deductibles — with no overall increase in health care spending.

The single-payer model is the only fiscally prudent proposal available, an especially important
consideration at a time of economic distress. By basing itself (and improving upon) Medicare, it
presents itself as a uniquely American way of guaranteeing care to all who need it. Such an
approach has repeatedly proven its effectiveness.

With a single-payer national health insurance program we can assure lifelong, high quality,
comprehensive and affordable coverage for everyone. Such a program will lift the heavy burden
of crushing medical expenses off the shoulders of our population, expenses that often lead to
personal bankruptcy. And we can save lives: the Institute of Medicine estimates that more than
18,000 Americans die each year from lack of health insurance.

The proposals made to date by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), like those associated with Sen.
Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and President-elect Barack Obama, share the fatal flaw of
preserving a central role for the investor-owned health insurance industry in a private-public
financing mix. This approach simply won’t work, as numerous state-based experiments patterned
after this model have shown. These plans always fail because they are unable to control costs.
In sum, from the standpoint of what benefits our patients, single payer is the health policy model
that best reflects their needs and values.

Support for single payer is extensive. In a peer-reviewed statistical study in the Annals of
Internal Medicine, 59 percent of U.S. physicians said they would support government action to
establish national health insurance. In a recent Associated Press poll, 65 percent of the
respondents said, “The United State should adopt a universal health insurance program in which
everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that is run by the government and financed
by taxes.”

In addition, over 480 labor organizations, including 39 state federations of the AFL-CIO, have
endorsed single payer legislation, as have numerous professional associations, city and state
governments, and religious denominations.

We therefore expect that single-payer proponents will be invited to testify before the Committee
and we look forward to your affirmative response. You can telephone me at [phone] or
reach me via e-mail at [e-mail].

Sincerely,


Quentin Young, MD, MACP
National Coordinator
Physicians for a National Health Program
29 E. Madison St., Suite 600
Chicago, IL 60602
[phone]
www.pnhp.org

http://www.pnhp.org/change/Daschle_Letter.pdf

Mods. I took this from a section of their website they put up for everyone to use so it should be okay to print the whole letter.

"You can draw upon special Talking Points and other materials here for meetings with members of Congress, at community forums, and in letters to the editor."

[trashcanistanista]

1. K&R

I couldn't have said it better. I would be willing to include a sliding scale copay if it meant the difference of passing or not passing. Mine is $10 per Doctor visit, $30 per ER visit, $5 per prescription. Those of us who could afford it pay, those who can't don't.

[watrwefitinfor]

6. I fear it is the insurance companies they are determined not to offend.

Plus, making sure big pharma gets theirs, too.

Wat

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

[OregonBlue]

3. K & R

[1776Forever]

4. Thank you! Now let's hear what Daschle and Gupta have to say about this!

MSM - Shuster - Twitty - Olbermann - Maddow are you listening?

[mopinko]

5. a local treasure. dr young would certainly be happy to have his letter copied

in it's entirety. and recopied. and copied again.

a tireless promoter of single payer for years and years.

[demodonkey]

7. HR 676 -- we can't afford NOT to do this. nt

[DailyGrind51]

8. Dr. Young has been pushing for Universal Health Care for two decades!

He contributes regularly to NPR's Chicago affiliate.

[Cleita]

16. LOL! Thats as long as I have although his

endorsement is far more valuable than mine.

[Vinca]

9. Bottom line: the only way insurance companies make a profit

is by denying care to policyholders. They are not in the healthcare business, they're in the money making business. I'm betting if "Medicare for all" was instituted (with changes to improve it) and put alongside private insurance, the vast majority of citizens would opt for single payer.

[Cleita]

10. That was John Edward's plan to eventually squeeze them out

of the competition using their own free market model. It's too bad his fellow senators can't see the forest for the trees.

[Vinca]

12. It's also too bad John wound up in the predicament he did.

He would have been a better choice than Daschle, IMHO.

[Lugnut]

11. Yes.

Nothing else is acceptable AFAIC.

[jwirr]

13. Would this Doctor allow us to use this as a petition? We could set

it up to collect signatures and move it on to other boards. I do not know how to do this but DU and other groups have sent petitions with thousands of names for other issues. First of all get it ready to send, let KO et al know about the letter and collection of names, do the collecting and then send it to Nancy, Harry, Dashle, President Obama, and any others that need to see how many of us are in favor of this.

[Cleita]

14. I'm sure he would. His contact information is at the end of the letter

under his signature. He would probably be pleased to.

[mucifer]

15. Dr Young is great. I've been hearing him on the radio for years. It's too bad that Dr. Young

was born in 1923. He's retired now and has quite the history of activism. He would have been amazing in the Obama administration. He still is an activist. He was Studs Terkel's doctor and he lived a long long time. :)

[Cleita]

17. They need to get people like him in front of Congressional committees

to testify, yet it seems the PNHP get consistently locked out on the health care debates although they have the best research going on the matter.