"I've said a single-payer system would serve Americans well. Would I sign single-payer legislation if it came to me? Yes," Rendell said.
from: Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, April 5, 2007
Rendell drops by health forum at F&M
Touts 'Prescription for Pennsylvania' plan
BY SUSAN E. LINDT, Intelligencer Journal Staff
Gov. Ed Rendell popped in at a local health care forum Wednesday to plug his mammoth "Prescription for Pennsylvania" plan, which he said could provide Pennsylvanians with affordable health care.
The forum, sponsored by Progressives 4 Pennsylvania, included panelists detailing problematic aspects of the current health care system and a speech by panelist Chuck Pennacchio, a 2006 U.S. Senate candidate who plugged his own answer to the problem: a single-payer plan known as state Senate Bill 300.
Progressives 4 Pennsylvania was formed in 2006 by local backers of Pennacchio's failed bid for the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat.
"Unless it's single-payer, it's not universal," Pennacchio said, before Rendell arrived at the forum at Franklin & Marshall's Alumni Sports & Fitness Center. "It's only universal if everyone is covered. Let's get our terminology right. Our bill gets at the source of the problem. We already have single-payer health care; it's called Medicare, and it works."
Under a single-payer plan, one entity -- a government-run organization -- would collect all health care fees, and pay all health care costs. A multipayer plan, as featured in Rendell's proposal, would work with the existing insurance system.
With his signature sense of humor, Rendell defended his multipayer plan, even while conceding a single-payer model might be better. He listed Pennsylvania's powerful health-insurance lobbies and lack of support on the national level for universal health care as hurdles preventing him from proposing a single-payer plan.
"I've said a single-payer system would serve Americans well. Would I sign single-payer legislation if it came to me? Yes," Rendell said. "Would I like to wake up tomorrow and comb my hair in a pompadour? Yes. But it's not going to happen.
"We can make progress, but we can't be Don Quixotes. There are no votes (for a single-payer system) in Washington, and it can only work if it's for the whole nation."
Rendell said Pennacchio's single-payer proposal doesn't address major cost-cutting areas in his proposal, state House Bill 700.
That plan would guarantee 85 percent of every dollar invested in health care would be spent on treatment, not administrative costs. His plan also allows the state's insurance commissioner to set rates, as the commissioner does for car insurance.
The governor said Pennsylvanians use emergency departments at a rate 11 percent higher than the national average and that visits are increasing by more than twice the national average. His plan would designate ER nurses and physician assistants to care for nonemergency cases at a lower cost.
Rendell took a jab at physicians and the Pennsylvania Medical Society as he explained that his plan would allow nurses, midwives, physicians assistants and other licensed health care professionals more latitude in treating patients, which he said would widen access to care, improve quality and lower costs.
"(The Pennsylvania Medical Society) applauds much of the plan, but they want to preserve the sacred bond between doctor and patient of administering a flu shot or treating that infected toenail," Rendell said. "This is all about turf, and it shouldn't be. There are plenty of doctors out there who understand what's going on, and that it's about turf."
Pressed by an audience member to name the better plan, panelist Dr. Tom Gates, a Lancaster family physician, reluctantly said a single-payer system is "eloquent and simple" and "makes the most sense," but, "I also respect the governor's position on the politics."
Other panelists included Dr. Mike Baxter; Sean Flaherty, a professor of economics at F&M; and Louis Yoka, vice president of Fulton Financial Corp..
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UPDATE: John Morgan posted a blog about our Health Care Forum at The Pennsylvania Progressive.
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