by Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer

Seattle Congressman Jim McDermott and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders announced on May 10 that they would introduce legislation to extend health care coverage to every resident of the U.S.

The American Health Security Act of 2011 would provide health care for every American through a Medicare-style single-payer system.

McDermott and Sanders said that such a system could provide better care for more patients at a lower cost by eliminating the middleman: the private insurance companies that now take billions of dollars in profits from the U.S. health care system.

The legislation would create a national health care program that requires each participating state to set up and administer comprehensive health care services as an entitlement for all residents.

The program would be progressively financed, including a surcharge on high-income individuals and a tax on securities and other financial transactions.

Benefits would emphasize primary and preventive care, and a free choice of health care providers. Private health insurance sold by for-profit companies would continue in the form of supplemental coverage only.

In a nod to Republican concerns about federal control of health care, the legislation also allows individual states to administer the system under federal guidelines and minimum standards.

'The new health care law made big progress towards covering many more people and finding ways to lower costs,' McDermott said at his and Sanders' joint May 10 press conference.

'However, I think the best way to reduce costs and guarantee coverage for all is through a single-payer system like Medicare. This bill does just that - it builds on the new health care law by giving states the flexibility they need to go to a single-payer system of their own. It will also reduce costs, and Americans will be healthier.'

'The United States is the only major nation in the industrialized world that does not guarantee health care as a right to its people,' Sanders said at the press conference.

'Meanwhile, we spend about twice as much per capita on health care with worse results than others that spend far less. It is time that we bring about a fundamental transformation of the American health care system. It is time for us to end private, for-profit participation in delivering basic coverage. It is time for the United States to provide a Medicare-for-all single-payer health coverage program.'

The proposed legislation was immediately endorsed by the AFL-CIO.

'We in the labor movement have long insisted that health care is a fundamental human right and an important measure of social justice,' said AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker at the May 10 press conference.

'And for more than 100 years, we have fought for universal health care coverage based on a social insurance model, an approach that has proven to be cost-effective and efficient in countries across the globe and in this country to provide health security for seniors.'

Jean Ross, R.N., and co-president of National Nurses United, agreed, saying the bill will 'create a more just health care system.'

 Share on Facebook

Share on MySpace!

    Share on Delicious

Share on StumbleUpon!