Business group on track with sensible health coverage plan

The Business Report has consistently supported reasonable alternatives to the private health insurance system that has taken both U.S. employers and their workers further away from the goal of affordable, universal health care.

Now add to the chorus of calls to scrap the failed “managed care” health insurance system a new one from a business group with roots in Colorado.

Nathan Wilkes, an Englewood businessman and cofounder of the Business Coalition for Single-Payer Healthcare, has it right when he says that the current coverage system is crushing American business.

There are certainly exceptions to that assertion. Private insurance companies, with $11 billion in profits during 2006 according to Consumer Reports, are faring better than ever. And pharmaceutical companies, with pricing protected by the so-called free-market economy, are also posting record gains.

But those two sectors no longer belong in the driver’s seat when health-care coverage policy is set.

Business leaders joining health-care providers, labor groups, faith-based organizations and others in calling for a single-payer system is a welcome turning point in the process of reforming America’s health-care system.

Wilkes and others in the business group took their plan on a test flight at the U.S. Mayors Conference last month in Miami, endorsing provisions of a bill before Congress that would extend basic Medicare coverage to all Americans rather than only those 65 and over.

The bill, HR676, goes by the title United States National Health Insurance Act. After reviewing its provisions, the mayors emerged with a resolution strongly endorsing the plan.

They bought the reasoning that private insurers spend one-third of all health-care spending on administrative costs, compared to 5 percent for the Medicare system.

They said they are confident in the results of a Harvard University study that concluded $300 billion – with a ‘B’ – could be saved annually by ditching private insurers and instituting a single-payer plan.

They took to heart reliable poll results saying that nearly two out of three doctors now believe a single-payer plan is the best path to universal coverage.

Of course, any plan that actually pays providers for services rendered – unlike annually averted Medicare “reforms” that could cut reimbursements more than 10 percent – would automatically get the vote of most medical professionals.

The Business Report encourages readers to explore the arguments supporting the stand taken by Business Coalition for Single-Payer Healthcare. If convinced, we hope they then will join the movement toward this most sensible solution.

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