Fun_People Archive
20 Jan
Free health care! It's in prison...

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 94 19:19:35 PST
To: Fun_People
Subject: Free health care!  It's in prison...

[I'm afraid you've already seen the only funny part (the subject line); the
 rest is a mite preachy, but it's so dead-on accurate (that means I share all
 its biases) that I couldn't help but pass it along.  And then, of course,
 I'll write my own email for president@whitehouse.gov... -psl]

 From: <pardo@cs.washington.edu>

 From: Phil Hughes <fyl@fylz.com>
 Subject: Health Care Reform
 To: president@whitehouse.gov
 Date: Thu, 20 Jan 1994 09:39:13 -0800 (PST)

I have just read that President Clinton is attempting to get the
costs associated with his health care proposal to be "off-budget".
Although I very much support a universal health care plan, I see
this attempt as a real dis-service.

Why?  Because I, like many Americans, support the idea of a single payer
plan.  Last July the Congressional Budget Office said that a single payer
plan would cut health care spending by $319 billion over 5 years, whereas
a "managed competition" plan would add $214 billion.  I want good health
care for all but I don't want to spend an extra $500 billion for it.  In
fact, I doubt anyone really wants to spend that extra $500 billion -- it
appears that some health care companies would like to line their pockets
with it but that is quite different from us having to spend the money to
get decent health care.

As the President continues to push "managed competition" we see the
overhead of health care (as a percentage of the also increasing cost)
continue to grow.  Today it appears to be about 25%, up from about 22%
just ten years ago.  Cutting overhead costs (not service costs, just
overhead) to that of the Canadian single payer system would have resulted
in over $100 billion in savings in just 1993.

My Representative, Jim McDermott, is right.  We need a single payer plan.
It is clear that other plans offer less choice and higher costs.  We want
health care, not health insurance.  Let's implement a plan that gets the
money in the hands of the health care providers so we can get the best
possible service for the lowest cost.  And let's stop playing games 
like attempting to make costs disappear by attempting to move them
"off-budget".
-- 
Phil Hughes -- fyl@fylz.com -- (206)526-2919 -- FAX: (206)526-0803
FYL -- 8315 Lake City Way NE -- Suite 207 -- Seattle, WA 98115

© 1994 Peter Langston