Those Working In Medicine Are Seeking Assistance

It is the belief of thousands of U.S are requesting that the government create a program for health coverage that would provide health insurance to every American citizen, addressing their needs and saving the country billions of dollars at the same time. Many physicians now assert, that the resolutions provided by the private sector, have not been effective, since the last attempt at a national health plan came up short. Due to stern opposition by insurance, pharmaceutical, and medical industries, it became embroiled in debate and intricacies, and never made it through Congress.

These doctors think that if Congress established a prescription drug benefit for the disabled and elderly, it would only benefit private customers and consumers wouldn’t see much of a difference. The physicians would enact a single payer system, basically a more extensive version of Medicare, the government-run health care initiative for disabled and elderly people.

Health maintenance organizations, which were once hoped to be the beacon of hope for the industry, have done little that turned out to be advantageous as they have raised costs even as their esteem has dropped sharply. Privately owned hospitals, which were promised to be more efficient, have really been no different. The doctors take issue with the practices of pharmaceutical companies that have massive profits, yet enjoy some of the lowest take rates in the industry all while selling drugs at prices that makes them unreachable for the average American consumer. The idea of this single payer system was issued in their esteemed medicinal journal.

Headed up by two previous surgeons general as well as the prior editor of a major American medical journal, the body of doctors appealed for a national form of health insurance. A Harvard Medical School lecturer stated that the current way of providing health care in this country could not continue without imploding. Single payer health care is the only choice that makes sense.

However, the current president of the American Medical Association has stated officially that they continue to be in opposition of any single payer system. He said that putting a single payer system into action in the United States, it would mean trading off one problem for an whole group of problems that are equally as serious. The qualities present in single payer systems include the development of an inefficient bureaucracy which will lead to a decline of the authority of doctors and patients over important decision making powers, a slower adoption of newer technologies and facility maintenance issues, and lengthy waiting periods for obtaining basic health care services.

The lobbying group for the managed care segment, the American Association of Health Plans, claims that it too is against the proposal put forward by the physicians, stating that it would destroy health maintenance groups as well as hospitals which operate for profit. The American Medical Association claims that less than one percent of the many thousands of doctors in the United States account for the doctors who are in favor of seeing this proposal put in effect. But one doctor stated that it was encouraging that that many doctors would support a national health insurance plan since doctors have historically been against government health care programs.