Common Sense about Health Care Reform in America - Tapa blanda

In the same way that Thomas Paine made a strong argument in his pamphlet, Common Sense, for people in the Thirteen Colonies to gain independence from England in 1775-1776, this pamphlet takes a similar approach, also based on simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense. Here, 241 years later, the subject is different but parallel to his goal—to have the American people gain freedom from the corporate masters in our medical-industrial complex that take their exorbitant profits on the backs of sick Americans, their families, and taxpayers. We detail markers of today’s health care crisis, summarize lessons we can learn from previous reform failures, and compare three financing alternatives: (1) the Affordable Care Act, (2) the GOP’s American Health Care Act, and (3) national health insurance under Medicare for All. The latter is described as the only way to achieve sustainable universal coverage to comprehensive health care. This will be paid for by eliminating waste and profits of the current system, simplifying administration, and sharing health care risk across all 320 million Americans. We describe how this new system of national health insurance will work and how we can achieve it given political will and a grassroots movement around the country energized by the majority of Americans who are losing out to corporate profiteers.

John Geyman, M.D. is professor emeritus of family medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, where he served as Chairman of the Department of Family Medicine from 1976 to 1990. As a family physician with over 21 years in academic medicine, he also practiced in rural communities for 13 years. He was the founding editor of The Journal of Family Practice (1973 to 1990) and the editor of The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine from 1990 to 2003. Since 1990 he has been involved with research and writing on health policy and health care reform. His most recent book was Crisis in U.S. Health Care: Corporate Power vs. the Common Good, The Human Face of ObamaCare: Promises vs. Reality and What Comes Next, How Obamacare Is Unsustainable: Why We Need a Single-Payer Solution For All Americans (2015). Earlier books include Health Care Wars: How Market Ideology and Corporate Power Are Killing Americans (2012), Souls On a Walk: An Enduring Love Story Unbroken by Alzheimers (2012), Breaking Point: How the Primary Care Crisis Threatens the Lives of Americans (2011), Hijacked: The Road to Single Payer in the Aftermath of Stolen Health Care Reform (2010), The Cancer Generation: Baby Boomers Facing a Perfect Storm (2009), Do Not Resuscitate: Why the Health Insurance Industry Is Dying (2008), The Corrosion of Medicine: Can the Profession Reclaim Its Moral Legacy (2008), Shredding the Social Contract: The Privatization of Medicare (2006), Falling Through the Safety Net: Americans Without Health Insurance (2005), The Corporate Transformation of Health Care: Can the Public Interest Still Be Served? (2004), and Health Care in America: Can Our Ailing System Be Healed? (2002). He served as the president of Physicians for a National Health Program from 2005 to 2007, and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.