Opinion Pieces Debate Merits of Single-Payer Health Care
The Fresno Bee on Monday published a point/counterpoint addressing the creation of a single-payer health care system in the U.S. Summaries appear below.
- Devin Carroll: The U.S. needs "universal health care funding because our current system of funding is costly, time-consuming and harmful to good medical care," Carroll, co-chair of Health Care for All, writes. "A universal health care system would create one giant insurance pool, eliminate the extra overhead of private insurance and pay for everyone efficiently," Carroll writes. Although a "national plan is unlikely soon," Carroll writes that "California is the closest [state] to passing a plan." Carroll urges lawmakers to pass SB 840 because "America needs public universal health care funding," and "[w]e have to start in a few states" (Carroll, Fresno Bee, 10/31).
- Michael Der Manouel: California "already ha[s] universal health care," Der Manouel, chair of the Lincoln Club of Fresno County, writes, adding that "[n]obody is denied medical care in our state, for any reason." However, Der Manouel writes that "from a financing standpoint, it's a system bordering on the insane." According to Der Manouel, the U.S. needs "a market-based system that discourages over-utilization and allows for the greatest consumer choice possible" because the "government cannot handle our health care needs." To help reform the U.S. health care system, Manouel recommends that the U.S. "secure our borders and deport illegal immigrants;" provide coverage for "the uninsured by offering refundable federal and state tax credits for the purchase of private, high-deductible major" insurance; and "delay the recently passed Medicare prescription-drug bill" (Manouel, Fresno Bee, 10/31).