Health-reform advocates host meeting

A local group that supports creation of a government-administered "single-payer" health care financing system will hold a town hall meeting here this week.

Tri-City Medical Town Hall has scheduled a presentation and discussion on "What Health Care Reform Should Be" at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Union Station. Panelists for the discussion are:

- Dr. Lerla Joseph, a Charles City internist and member of the advisory board of health care advocacy group United Virginia.

- Dr. Stephen Vaughan, Convenient Health Care Inc., Petersburg.

- Dr. William Ferguson Reid, a former member of the House of Delegates and a member of United Virginia and two other groups that advocate a single-payer system, Physicians for a National Health Program and Healthcare Now.

The discussion will be moderated by Andrea Miller, an emergency operations trainer and former Democratic candidate for Congress in the Fourth District.

According to Healthcare Now, "Single-payer is a term used to describe a type of financing system. It refers to one entity acting as administrator, or 'payer.' In the case of health care, a single-payer system would be set up such that one entity - a government-run organization - would collect all health care fees and pay out all health care costs."

Such a system, according to the advocacy group, will help reduce the cost of health care. "In a single-payer system, all hospitals, doctors and other health care providers would bill one entity for their services," the group noted. "This alone reduces administrative waste greatly and saves money, which can be used to provide care and insurance to those who currently don't have it."

The groups sponsoring the town hall meeting, which also include the California Nurses Association and Progressive Democrats of America, are supporting legislation introduced this year in the House of Representatives, the U.S. National Health Care Act or Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act (H.R. 676). The bill would expand the existing government-run Medicare system to provide health insurance coverage for all U.S. residents.

Miller said the proposal would differ from a Canadian- or European-style national health system, in which health services are provided by a government agency, because it would be "publicly funded but privately delivered" - that is, private businesses would provide the services and treatments, and would be reimbursed by the government, as is currently done under Medicare.

The bill also would include prescription drug coverage in which prices are "fully negotiated" as they are under Department of Veterans Affairs health benefits programs, Miller said.

The single-payer proposal differs significantly from the widely publicized America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (H.R. 3200), which includes a proposal that would create a government-run health insurance provider to be offered as one option alongside private insurance companies in a "Health Insurance Exchange" program.

Under that plan, which generally reflects the Obama administration's preferences, anyone who lacks health coverage could pick an insurance provider from among those offered through the exchange, including the government-run or "public" option. Different providers would offer different levels of benefits at different prices.