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Members of the Boothbay Region Peace and Justice group decided by unanimous consensus at their June 9 meeting to support single-payer health care, or "Medicare For All" as embodied in the proposed Congressional bill HR 676.
In taking this action, Boothbay Region Peace and Justice joins many other groups who have expressed support for single-payer healthcare. Both houses of the Maine legislature have voted by roll call vote to support single-payer HR 676, as has the New Hampshire House. A majority of Maine's physicians favor single-payer, according to a recent poll conducted by the Maine Medical Society. The US Council of Mayors at its meeting last year voted unanimously in favor of supporting single-payer HR 676. Many polls have shown that Americans favor single-payer Medicare For All by a substantial majority, and so does a majority of American physicians. Many local and state governments support Medicare For All both because it is more just in providing coverage for everyone and also because, as employers providing health insurance for their employees, they look forward to lower costs to relieve strained budgets.
The Boothbay Region Peace and Justice group decided to send statements to federal, state and local officials and to other civic, business and religious groups urging them to back single-payer Medicare For All, HR 676.
The group also voted to join Midcoast Healthcare Reform, a coalition of Midcoast Maine citizens and groups backing HR 676, whose website is at www.midcoasthealthcarereform.org. Midcoast Healthcare Reform was founded by Maine's Jerry Call, one of the "Baucus 13" who were arrested last month at the Senate Finance Committee hearings on healthcare. Mostly doctors and nurses, they stood up to object to the lack of even one single-payer advocate among the many apologists for the healthcare lobby called as witnesses. Jailed in leg irons for 30 hours after his arrest, Call faces criminal charges and imprisonment for "disruption of Congress".
Boothbay Region Peace and Justice will express its backing for single payer Medicare For All at its regular Thursday vigils (1 to 2 p.m.) in support of peace and justice on Route 27 near Hannaford's.
Single-payer health care does not mean that the government or some government agency delivers or controls health care services. Like Medicare, it pays for health professionals and services according to the needs and wishes of the patient and his or her doctor. Single-payer Medicare For All, HR 676, would eliminate entirely the need for employers or individuals to purchase healthcare insurance. Instead, healthcare for all Americans would be funded by taxes, mostly by a 5 percent Federal Health Tax on payrolls (replacing the current FICA Medicare tax).
Even though many more would be covered, the total national payment for healthcare would be the same or slightly reduced, because the $1 billion per day now being expended on overhead imposed by the insurance companies would be eliminated. (The markup of 45% they impose beyond the cost of healthcare they pay for is ten times the markup of about 4% required by Medicare - and supermarkets). The savings of over $1,000 per year for every person in the United States would be more than enough to provide coverage for the 47 million currently with no insurance
Single-payer Medicare For All, declared "off the table" in Washington, is very different from the several reform bills now being debated in Congress, all of which preserve a place for the insurance companies. Those proposals seek "universal coverage" by imposing mandates forcing people to buy insurance, which increases the total national medical bill. They then strive to make that insurance "affordable" by distributing government subsidies directly to insurance companies.
When the Congressional Budget Office revealed last week the total cost of these proposals, the resultant sticker shock led CNN to declare that such healthcare reform was "on the rocks".
In contrast, Medicare For All would cover everyone, at a total US healthcare cost actually lower than under our current system.
According to a spokesperson for Boothbay Peace and Justice, much misinformation is being promulgated about single-payer health care. It is often falsely claimed that a single-payer system would limit choice of doctor or hospital more than does private insurance, when in fact the opposite is true. And, it is falsely claimed that Medicare For All would lead to "long waiting times", as in Canada - even though it would be funded at twice Canada's level per capita.. The much-debated "public option" is often falsely claimed to be the same as single-payer Medicare. The debate about it creates confusion and distracts attention from Medicare For All.
Boothbay Region Peace and Justice will continue to discuss healthcare and other issues relating to peace and justice at its monthly meetings, the second and fourth Tuesdays each month at the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library, 5:30 p.m. All meetings are open to the public. More information is available at the group's website, www.peaceboothbay.net. For more on HR 676, see www.healthcare-now.org.