Obama-care not the answer

Dear editor:

Obama-care is not the answer. It is ludicrously expensive and perpetuates the greedy siphoning of our money into the insurance industry. There is a much simpler solution.

Introduced in Congress in January with 31 sponsors, the United States National Health Insurance Act, (H.R. 676), is a simple 27-page bill to expand and improve Medicare to include all of us, rather than just those over age 65. You choose doctors and hospitals and go see them whenever you decide, no deductibles, co-payments, co-insurance or other cost-sharing. It includes prescription drugs, mental health, dental services, vision care, chiropractic and even long term care. Costs are paid by monthly premiums on an income-based sliding scale, for less than most insurance premiums.

The rational way to get affordable coverage for everyone is to expand Medicare and fund it adequately. Contrary to popular belief, this would not have to cost more than we spend on medical coverage today.

In terms of the average cost per person, our public U.S. tax-financed health-care per capita costs exceed 140 percent of the per capita costs in Canada. And, Canadians have higher life expectancy, lower infant mortality, and, in poll after poll, they report greater satisfaction with their medical care system.

By the way, that 140 percent only counts tax-financed expenses. It does not include what private citizens currently pay out of their pockets for health insurance and deductibles and prescriptions and cost-sharing. Hundreds of billions disappear into insurance company profits every year.

Two thirds of all bankruptcies in America are caused by medical bills and three quarters of those are families with health insurance.

Yes, costs are the real problem with U.S. medical care. But, the best place to reduce cost is on administration.

Some medical providers have more administrators than patients. Congressional testimony this year revealed that Duke University had 200 billing clerks for its 200-bed hospital. Bills have to be sent to hundreds of different places, and each has its own requirements for physicians to satisfy in order to get paid.

Rather than create a big new bureaucracy, HR 676 simplifies things and takes a burden off state budgets by eliminating the need for Medicaid.

It frees employers from paying for health benefits, and it picks up the bills for everyone's medical care.

HR 676 now has 85 co-sponsors in Congress and the backing of 16,000 physicians across the country. More information is available at http-1/idahohealthcareforall.org.

Jim Breslin