• Universal entitlement; freedom to choose doctors and health professionals
• Single-payer insurance, publicly administered and funded
• Full funding of public health programs
• Funding for research that serves the public good
• Informed choice and unimpeded access to a full range of family planning and reproductive services
• A role for health care consumers and workers in public planning and oversight bodies

Why Health Care Reform Is An Important Part of the Labor Party Program

The United States is unique among the industrialized nations of the world in the nature of its health care system--not only do we lack a national health plan, but health care in America has become a profit-driven industry controlled by giant insurance companies and managed-care conglomerates. The statistics and problems reflect a continuing and escalating crisis: shrinking coverage now leaves 42 million Americans without any health insurance whatsoever; companies and employees are increasingly at odds as employers shift costs and cut coverage while workers fiercely resist cutbacks in hard-won benefits; any viable reform proposal is met with extreme industry attacks and million dollar opposition ad campaigns. And health care leaps toward oligopoly as one giant merger follows another. In 1981, roughly 18 percent of all HMOs were for-profit. By 1995, the market share of investor-owned, for-profit HMOs was 70 percent.

The details of health care mergers show how corporatized health care values shareholder profits over patient care. For example, the recent merger of insurance giant Aetna and U.S. Healthcare has created an entity that controls access to health care for one in every twelve Americans. U.S. Healthcare is known for rewarding doctors for giving skimpy care and penalizing them for referring patients to specialists, emergency rooms or hospitals. It generated higher profits in 1995 than nearly any other for-profit HMO and took 25 percent out of every premium dollar for its outrageous CEO salaries, profits and bureaucracy. U.S. Healthcare CEO Leonard Abramson made nearly $1 billion in profit from the merger--money that could and should be used for the uninsured. Wall Street analysts predict that the merged company will achieve profits $300 million higher than what they could have earned separately. We all know that these profits will come from downsizing, reducing and denying care, and higher prices as oligopolistic pricing begins to assert itself.

Recently, 1996 PNHP (Physicians for a National Health Program) President Dr. Susan Steigerwalt discussed the health care at for-profits, particularly at U.S. Healthcare:

At U.S. Healthcare and other for-profits, each doctor is given a certain amount of money for each patient every month, to take care of that person and "keep them healthy." This is called capitation. But if you refer your patients to specialists more often than what the company considers to be acceptable, or if your patient goes to the emergency room more than they think is acceptable, then a portion of the money that they pay you is withheld. Conversely, if your patients don't go to the emergency room and your average per month cost for specialty care is low, you'll receive a bonus at the end of the year, We call it "fee-for-non-service." So, taking care of the same group of patients, you could either make no money, theoretically, or up to $250,000 , depending on how you practice.

Thus, as consumers of health care, we are left to deal with the results of health care "reform" as defined by conservatives, our government and the insurance industry. This includes managed care abuses, downsizing resulting in decrease of quality of care, increasing number of uninsured, the massive explosion of for-profit corporations controlling the delivery of health care services, doctors revolting due to insurance/managed care companies telling them how to practice, growing cost shifting and decreases in benefits.

Steps to Take

Whenever and however you can, add the Labor Party's voice to the demand for a health care system worthy of the name. Join and support single-payer groups in your area, write letters to the editor calling for real reform, meet with elected officials, speak up and speak out.