Declaring "our health-care system is failing," a national physicians' group Wednesday proposed a comprehensive federal health plan that would abolish private insurance but still guarantee medical care for every American.
In news conferences around the country and in an article published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors from Physicians for a National Health Program, a 1,200-member physicians' group, made their case for a fundamental change in the way medical bills are paid.
At UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange, Dr. Howard Waitzkin, an internist and a founding member of the group, cited recent national surveys showing that there are now 35 million Americans with no insurance and another 20 million who are "under-insured," with coverage that does not pay for all their medical needs.
Rekindles Debate
Though the plan currently lacks congressional sponsorship, its publication in the prestigious journal rekindles the debate about publicly financed health insurance within the medical community.
"As practicing doctors, teachers and researchers, we're deeply troubled that many people can't get the most basic health services," Waitzkin said. "That has got to change."
Dr. Jerome Tobis, a UC Irvine professor who chairs the medical center's ethics committee, agreed, saying, "The health-care system today in America is a jungle, and correction is urgently needed."
Physicians for a National Health Program's solution is a plan, patterned after Canada's 20-year-old national health insurance program, that proponents say would cut bureaucracy, do away with the "often unjust dictates of insurance companies," save up to $50 billion annually but still allow patients to choose doctors, clinics and hospitals.
Instead of paying premiums to insurance companies, individuals under the plan would be taxed, paying an amount roughly equivalent to their premium into a new national health program. Most employers could expect to pay slightly less than they are now paying for health insurance benefits, proponents said.
As Waitzkin and the medical journal article described it, patients would not be billed for any medical service. Rather, all medical costs would be paid directly to providers through the federal program.
Under the program, regional or statewide payment boards would negotiate fees with doctors. Also, the boards would set budgets for hospitals, group practices and health maintenance organizations, a practice that would "eliminate billing," according to the Physicians for a National Health Program article.
