Background Information - Single-payer Healthcare
One reason the current draft legislation falls short of the mark is that single-payer advocates, a crucial human rights constituency, have been largely excluded from the reform process. While the human right to health care does not mandate any particular type of health care system, of the reform proposals being discussed in the U.S. today, the single-payer plans are more universal, equitable and accountable – the three key principles of the human right to health care. Single-payer plans approach health care as an essential service and a public good. A single-payer health care system would pair private delivery with public financing – that is, with private doctors, clinics and hospitals getting all their reimbursement from the government. Medicare, a well-established and popular part of our current health care system, works this way; a single-payer system would institute an improved Medicare for all.
Two of Amnesty International’s ally organizations, the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative and the National Health Law Program, have analyzed current single-payer proposals, and found them to come much closer to fulfilling the human right to health care than the market-based reform plans Congress is considering.
But the powerful Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and the single most important legislative group in the reform process, has yet to hold a public hearing on single payer and the deadline to get the Senate health care reform bill on the floor is looming. Single payer deserves to be part of the debate.
Help ensure that the human right to health care gets a fair hearing – urge Max Baucus to hold a Senate Finance Committee hearing on single payer!
