An update from the battle for single-payer health care…yesterday’s Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the American College of Physicians (ACP) has endorsed a single-payer health system. The ACP is the second largest physician’s group in the country – the American Medical Association, which doesn’t support single-payer, is the largest. 

Here’s a bit from the article:

While some physicians have formed organizations that push for single-payer, David Dale, president of the ACP, said his was the largest general-interest doctor group to support the controversial idea.

The group said change was necessary because access to health care had deteriorated….

….After analyzing health care in the United States and 12 other industrialized countries, the group concluded that universal coverage had been successfully achieved elsewhere through single-payer and pluralistic systems.

So they endorse single-payer, but…

The group said the country also could do that through expansion of the current mix of private insurance and government coverage. Under the proposal, people would be required to get health insurance.

And then we have this quote:

Thomas E. Getzen, a professor of insurance and health management at Temple University, said doctors had long resisted single-payer systems for fear it would give the government more control over them. (emphasis added)

The control that should really be mentioned in these discussions – and which ACP should acknowledge in its proposals for a mix of private/government care – is the massive amount of control that the private insurance companies have over doctors and patients. The system we have now places profit before people – this is why our system and access to care has deteriorated.

More docs should step up to the plate and support the only real answer to our health care problem: a single-payer system.