Issue Position: Health Care
Issue Position
Issue Position: Health Care
As a Congressman, Phil will work to create single-payer health care insurance system. With a single-payer system, every American will have quality health care; doctors, not insurance bureaucrats, will make medical decisions; costs will be reduced for both patients and businesses; and barriers to new opportunities will be eliminated.
Let Patients & Doctors Make Decisions, Not HMO's.
A majority of doctors support the single-payer system as an alternative to the health insurance system we have now. HMO's and other insurers have created a complex administrative tangle under which doctors and patients are buried under red tape and under constant bureaucratic oversight. The health insurance system needs to be simplified; and decision-making needs to be returned to doctors and patients.
The current insurance system is fragmented into a patchwork quilt of inefficient governmental and private insurance plans. Oftentimes, the only way for private health insurers to increase profits, and for government to cut costs, is to deny legitimate claims by patients for coverage and legitimate claims by doctors for payment. Single payer health insurance will end this travesty.
Phil's Record on Healthcare is Clear.
In Congress, H.R. 676, a bill to enact a single-payer health system, has been introduced and sponsored by 90 members of the House of Representatives. Locally, Phil introduced a resolution in support of single-payer health insurance which passed in the Albany County Legislature. Albany County is also a self-insurer for health insurance, which saves the taxpayers money. Unfortunately, 90% of the County share of the property tax goes to Medicaid. This will no longer be necessary if the single-payer system is adopted.
Protecting Medicare Because it Works.
Medicare is a single-payer system but only the elderly are allowed to be members. Medicare is highly efficient. It spends only 3 cents of every dollar on administration and 97 cents on health care, compared to HMOs, which spend 40 cents of every dollar on administration. Medicare, however, needs to be reformed to open it up to more people and to eliminate Bush administration efforts to privatize portions of the system..
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