Framingham Hosts Single-Payer Health Care Forum
Four supporters of a single-payer health care structure outlined what they see as advantages to the system during a forum Tuesday night at Framingham State University.
Under a single-payer system, there is a single entity that provides coverage for the entire population. That is opposed to the current system in America, in which individuals and employers buy health insurance from insurance companies in a competitive market.
Supporters claim that a single-payer model offers efficiencies in billing and administrative costs. Also, people would be guaranteed health insurance from the government, instead having to get it through an employer, which is typical in today's health care system.
But opposition to a single-payer system is fierce. Opponents argue that a government monopoly would stifle innovation and limit choice.
The single-payer debate is expected to intensify on Beacon Hill this fall as politicians explore ways to reduce health care costs.
Pros And Cons
State Rep. Tom Sannicandro, D-Ashland, moderated Tuesday night's event, which he billed as a learning session about a single-payer system.
All four panelists at the event, however, seemed to have their minds made up on the debate.
One of the panelists, state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, D-Acton, has sponsored legislation that would institute a single-payer system in Massachusetts. At the root of the argument for single-payer, he said, is fairness.
Health care should be a right, Eldridge argued, similar to the way public education is a right for all citizens. The best way to ensure that health care is provided to everyone is to have it administered by the government, he said.
A single-payer system, in Eldridge's eyes, would be administered through a payroll tax. Businesses and employees would no longer pay for health insurance through their work; it would instead be assessed as part of a new tax.
The current system in which health insurance is linked to employment can create situations where employees stay at a job that they do not like to ensure they have health care. That, he said, creates a disincentive for entrepreneurship.
In addition, he said, health insurance, as it is run now, is a profit-driven system. Even nonprofit health insurers, he said, are looking to make money. But, he argued, in a single-payer structure, costs are more stable and secure because they are set by the single entity administering the program.
Other panelists included Gerald Friedman, a professor of economics at UMass Amherst who advocates for single-payer systems; Benjamin Day, director of Mass Care, a nonprofit organization that supports single-payer adoption; and Alex Robbins, a Cambridge business owner who believes a single-payer system would help control his future health care costs.
Single-payer systems have fierce opposition, however, including health insurance companies.
Eric Linzer, senior vice president of public affairs for the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, said that single-payer systems merely change who is processing the billing, not how much medical services cost.
He added that cost containment efforts should focus on the providers of care, including doctors and hospitals, not the insurance plans.
"Follow the money," he said.
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