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Top 10 Reasons to Support H.R. 676, the U.S. National Health Insurance Act
1. Everybody In, Nobody Out. Universal means access to health care for everyone, period.
2. Choice. Most private insurance restricts your choice of doctors, other caregivers or hospitals.
Under the U.S. National Health Insurance Act, patients have a choice, and the provider is assured a fair payment.
3. Portability. If you are unemployed, or lose or change jobs, your health coverage stays with you.
4. Uniform Benefits. No Cadillac plans for the wealthy and Pinto plans for everyone else, with high deductibles,
limited service, caps on payments for car, and no protection in the event of a catastrophe. One level of
comprehensive care for everyone, regardless of the size of your wallet.
5. Prevention. By removing financial roadblocks, a universal health system encourages preventive care that
lowers an individual’s ultimate cost and pain and suffering when problems are neglected and societal cost in
the over-utilization of emergency rooms or the spread of communicable diseases.
6. No Interference with Care. Caregivers and patients regain their autonomy to decide what’s best for a patient’s
health, not what’s dictated by a private insurer’s billing department. No denial of coverage for pre-existing
conditions or cancellation of policies for ‘unreported’ minor health problems.
7. Reducing Waste. One third of every private health insurance dollar goes for paperwork and overhead, compared
to about 3% under Medicare, the federal government’s universal system for senior citizen healthcare.
8. Cost Savings. A guaranteed health care system can produce the cost savings needed to cover everyone, largely
by using existing resources without the waste. Taiwan, shifting from a U.S. private health care model, adopted
a similar system in 1995, boosting health coverage from 57% to 97% with little increase in overall spending.
9. Common Sense Budgeting. The public system sets fair reimbursements applied equally to all providers, private
and public, while assuring that appropriate health care is delivered. It uses its clout to negotiate volume
discounts for prescription drugs and medical equipment.
10. Public Oversight. The public sets the policies and administers the system, not CEOs making decisions based
on their company’s stock performance needs.
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