The Only Option Is Single-Payer

by Dee Newman

It is immoral to profit off of the misfortunes of others and that is exactly what the private for-profit insurance industry is designed to do.

We cannot solve any of the problems of the United States health care system by leaving any portion of the payment system for medical care in the hands of the immoral private for-profit insurance industry.

The whole paradigm of the private for-profit insurance industry is to maximize the industry's profit by keeping high-risk people out of the insurance pool, and by keeping reimbursements and coverage as low as possible.

A so-called "public option" that competes with the private insurance industry will not solve either the cost of or the access to health care in the United States.

The "public option" will become a dumping ground for all the high-cost, high-risk people that the private sector insurance industry doesn't want.

The cost of a "public option" will then become a huge financial burden on the taxpayers who will most assuredly demand cuts in benefits, coverage and reimbursement.

The "public option" will become like the private options, cutting benefits and rejecting applicants and claims, which leaves us where we started.

The only option is a single-payer, universal health care system.

Any health care plan that falls short of a single-payer, universal system will never work. In fact, it will only increase the inefficiency and administrative costs of the abominable system we already have and make it worse.