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Single-payer health care is an idea whose time has come. According to a Harvard Medical School study published Feb. 9 in the Archives of Internal Medicine, nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of physicians favor single-payer national health insurance, far more than support managed care (10 percent) or fee-for-service care (26 percent). Despite this high level of support (including most members of such establishment organizations as the American Medical Association and the Massachusetts Medical Society), only a little over half (51.9 percent) of physicians were aware that their fellow doctors support single-payer national health insurance.  

The American public also is looking for fair, affordable, and reliable health care, finding the current shifting sands and rising prices frightening. Much of “managed care,” while classified as HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) does not provide health care at all (in contrast with a true health provider organization such as Kaiser that has its own hospitals, clinics, etc.). Instead, these managed care insurers control access to health care services through payment schemes that more and more function to withhold health care. These payment schemes deny coverage, transfer payments/costs to patients, and interfere with physician orders and treatment. True health maintenance organizations, such as Kaiser, have been squeezed in the economic vise of competition with so-called health maintenance insurance schemes that offer employers lower rates for poorer health coverage, while pushing costs onto patients.  

Although an initiative campaign to establish single-payer health care failed some years ago, and although Hillary Clinton’s complicated effort (which was not single-payer) in the early Bill Clinton presidency also failed, time marches on: Those who now are most profoundly concerned with health care, notably patients and doctors, have become increasingly appalled by the intrusion of insurance companies and their expensive bureaucracies. There is widespread recognition that these companies interfere with and often even deny health care delivery.  

California State Senator Sheila Kuehl has introduced legislation (SB 921) to establish single-payer health care insurance in California; both State Senator Don Perata and Assemblymember Loni Hancock are co-sponsors.  

Locally, Alameda County Measure A has been introduced to provide continuation of public health care services in Alameda County—this is essential and must be passed, to continue not only basic services for the poor but also essential emergency/trauma services for all. 

Single-payer health care is an issue whose time has come. Dr. Denny McCormick, a study author and researcher at Harvard Medical School commented: “The perception that physicians oppose national health insurance often serves to reinforce political barriers to health care reform. Our finding that a large majority of physicians actually support single-payer national health insurance could provide the impetus for national health insurance, particularly if physicians began to publicly advocate for their views.” The American public wants a health care system that is reliable, consistent, affordable, and available to all; single-payer meets those criteria.  

Let’s pass Alameda County Measure A on March 2, and let’s pass SB 921 in the California State Legislature. 

Judy Bertelsen, M.D., Ph.D. practices internal medicine and geriatrics at John George Psychiatric Pavillio in San Leandro.  

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