Single-payer system is the only answer

By David Moynahan, M.D.
Letters, Tallahassee Democrat

Re "Progressives have debt-reduction ideas, too" (Eugene Robinson, July 11).

I was heartened to see yet another article in support of single-payer health care. All the railing against "Obamacare" is just a distraction from our currently failing health care system, and "Obamacare" is hardly any better than the old system.

Those advocates of "Leave My Healthcare Alone" aren't admitting to themselves that as "their" plan keeps getting more expensive or offering fewer benefits, they too might get squeezed out. Every day, more employers are opting out of providing health care, adding to the number of uninsured Americans. The uninsured seek only the most expensive health care (emergency room or catastrophic) for which they can't pay, and the hospitals add those losses to their costs for everyone else.

So those with insurance pay for everyone else already. Single-payer systems around the world provide better (yes, better, by every measurable outcome) health care for half the cost. We need to wake up and demand true health care reform. Advocates of the status quo are like a ship's passengers who demand that the captain stay on course and that the band keep playing instead of repairing a bad leak in the sinking USS Health Care.

David Moynahan, M.D., practices family medicine in Crawfordsville, Fla.