Health Care for All Fiscally conservative Socially responsible Rob Stone MD Director, Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, IUSM
DISCLOSURES Dr. Rob Stone has no relevant financial relationships with commercial interests. Slides can be downloaded at: HCHP.info/Presentations
Single-Payer No-Brainer ☝ EMTALA – We already live with healthcare as a human right ☝ We come out ahead financially ☝ Best way to get everyone covered = less primary care done in ED and fewer hassles making referrals
Single-Payer Downside ☟ If you practice in a tony suburb ☟ If you fear the power of big government more than the power of big corporations
Our Non-System of Illness Care
Lack of Insurance Kills 1 every 12 minutes 120 every day 45,000 a year People without insurance: Live sicker and die younger The safety net is full of holes American Journal Public Health, Wilper et al, Dec 2009
President G W Bush “I mean, people have access to health care in America. “I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.” After all, you just go to an emergency room.” Cleveland, Ohio, July 10, 2007
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels “We already have universal health care in this state – anyone can go to the emergency room and get care 24/7.”
September 10, 2001
ED’s Feel the Pinch ☤ AMI and other urgent patients have increased wait times due to overcrowding by patients unable to obtain non-urgent care elsewhere 1 ☤ Uninsured children over 3X more likely to die from trauma-related injuries than children with commercial insurance 2 1” Waits To See An Emergency Department Physician: 1997– 2004” Wilper et al, Health Affairs 27, no. 2 (2008) 2 "Lack of Insurance Negatively Affects Trauma Mortality in U.S. Children” Rosen et al, Journal of Pediatric Surgery, 10/09
Insurance Premiums Workers’ Earnings Inflation Kaiser/HRET Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Benefits, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index
Bankruptcy 2009 62% caused by illness and medical bills Most were middle class 78% were insured when they became ill Himmelstein et al, American Journal of Medicine, August 2009
Health Spending Per Capita Rampel, US Health Spending Breaks From the Pack, NYT 7/8/09
What Are We Paying For? An incredibly complex system Thousands of plans Armies of people to: -deny coverage and payments - collect payments - determine eligibility
Where is the bureaucratic nightmare?
U.S. Overhead Spending International Journal of Health Services 2005; 35(1): ***
Medicare’s Efficiency: 3% Overhead 2003, 31% health spending on overhead – could save $286 Billion 1 1993, CBO: “The net cost of Single Payer would be negative.” 2 1991, GAO: “If US shifted to coverage like Canada, savings would offset the expense of universal coverage” 3 1 New England Journal of Medicine 8/21/ Congressional Budget Office, 1993, 3 separate reports 3 General Accounting Office, 06/91 ref: T-HRD-91-35
Brief History WWII: Wage and price controls 1947: Truman pushes for National Health Insurance AMA and Southern legislators oppose
History (continued) The birth of the Blues 1965: Medicare and Medicaid
Greg Henry MD “Medicare… should have been called the ‘Savior of Internal Medicine Act.’” Emergency Physician Monthly October ‘09