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Marchers at a Medicare-for-all rally in Los Angeles, California on February 4, 2017. (Photo: Ronen Tivony/ZUMA)
Medicare for All Only Way to Fix Broken System: An Open Letter to Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, and Jamie Dimon
As you turn your focus towards health care, we urge you to meet with policy experts who have studied this problem for decades and concluded—like every other advanced industrialized nation in the world—that a single-payer system is the only way to solve this crisi
Feb 01, 2018
Dear Mr. Bezos, Mr. Buffett, and Mr. Dimon:
As a physicians and health justice advocates, we agree with you that health care is among the greatest issues facing society today. Your tremendous resources provide a unique opportunity to advocate for a health program to benefit all Americans: a universal, single-payer system.
Mr. Buffett describes our profit-based health system as a "tapeworm," a parasite whose survival depends on its ability to drain nutrients from the host. How did our health care system reach that sorry state?
Our nation faces a catastrophic failure on two levels. First, the market has failed to deliver affordable health care to those who need it most. More importantly, our elected officials have failed to enact the reforms that could remedy health care's woes because they are unwilling to offend big donors from the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Instead, they've nibbled around the edges with incremental reforms like the Affordable Care Act. The ACA not only failed to kill the tapeworm of profit-based health care, it fattened it up with government subsidies, fueling the twin drivers of health costs--profits and administrative bloat.
Adding one more well-intentioned layer to our labyrinthine health care financing arrangements cannot fix these failures. Instead, we must to move to one simple nonprofit financing system, known as single payer or Medicare for All. In fact, Mr. Buffett recently supported single payer and said that as a nation "we can afford to do it." Medicare for all would bring desperately needed financial stability to the lives of everyday Americans, to every unit of government, and to businesses large and small.
As you turn your focus towards health care, we urge you to meet with policy experts who have studied this problem for decades, as well as the health care professionals operating at the front lines of this crisis. Physicians for a National Health Program is a 22,000-member nonprofit research and education organization that advocates for single-payer health care. Our "Physicians' Proposal for Single-Payer Health Care Reform" is a research-based plan for expanding health coverage to all Americans while eliminating the waste and profiteering of private insurance, and the inefficiencies they inflict on doctors and hospitals.
We would be happy to meet with you to discuss how single payer could benefit your workers, your bottom line, and the American economy as a whole.
Sincerely,
Carol Paris, M.D.
President, Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP)
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Dr. Carol Paris
Dr. Carol Paris is a psychiatrist and president of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP).
amazon rainforestcorporate powerhealthcarejamie dimonjeff bezosmedicare for allphysicians for a national health program (pnhp)single-payerwarren buffettwashington post
Dear Mr. Bezos, Mr. Buffett, and Mr. Dimon:
As a physicians and health justice advocates, we agree with you that health care is among the greatest issues facing society today. Your tremendous resources provide a unique opportunity to advocate for a health program to benefit all Americans: a universal, single-payer system.
Mr. Buffett describes our profit-based health system as a "tapeworm," a parasite whose survival depends on its ability to drain nutrients from the host. How did our health care system reach that sorry state?
Our nation faces a catastrophic failure on two levels. First, the market has failed to deliver affordable health care to those who need it most. More importantly, our elected officials have failed to enact the reforms that could remedy health care's woes because they are unwilling to offend big donors from the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Instead, they've nibbled around the edges with incremental reforms like the Affordable Care Act. The ACA not only failed to kill the tapeworm of profit-based health care, it fattened it up with government subsidies, fueling the twin drivers of health costs--profits and administrative bloat.
Adding one more well-intentioned layer to our labyrinthine health care financing arrangements cannot fix these failures. Instead, we must to move to one simple nonprofit financing system, known as single payer or Medicare for All. In fact, Mr. Buffett recently supported single payer and said that as a nation "we can afford to do it." Medicare for all would bring desperately needed financial stability to the lives of everyday Americans, to every unit of government, and to businesses large and small.
As you turn your focus towards health care, we urge you to meet with policy experts who have studied this problem for decades, as well as the health care professionals operating at the front lines of this crisis. Physicians for a National Health Program is a 22,000-member nonprofit research and education organization that advocates for single-payer health care. Our "Physicians' Proposal for Single-Payer Health Care Reform" is a research-based plan for expanding health coverage to all Americans while eliminating the waste and profiteering of private insurance, and the inefficiencies they inflict on doctors and hospitals.
We would be happy to meet with you to discuss how single payer could benefit your workers, your bottom line, and the American economy as a whole.
Sincerely,
Carol Paris, M.D.
President, Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP)
Dr. Carol Paris
Dr. Carol Paris is a psychiatrist and president of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP).
Dear Mr. Bezos, Mr. Buffett, and Mr. Dimon:
As a physicians and health justice advocates, we agree with you that health care is among the greatest issues facing society today. Your tremendous resources provide a unique opportunity to advocate for a health program to benefit all Americans: a universal, single-payer system.
Mr. Buffett describes our profit-based health system as a "tapeworm," a parasite whose survival depends on its ability to drain nutrients from the host. How did our health care system reach that sorry state?
Our nation faces a catastrophic failure on two levels. First, the market has failed to deliver affordable health care to those who need it most. More importantly, our elected officials have failed to enact the reforms that could remedy health care's woes because they are unwilling to offend big donors from the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Instead, they've nibbled around the edges with incremental reforms like the Affordable Care Act. The ACA not only failed to kill the tapeworm of profit-based health care, it fattened it up with government subsidies, fueling the twin drivers of health costs--profits and administrative bloat.
Adding one more well-intentioned layer to our labyrinthine health care financing arrangements cannot fix these failures. Instead, we must to move to one simple nonprofit financing system, known as single payer or Medicare for All. In fact, Mr. Buffett recently supported single payer and said that as a nation "we can afford to do it." Medicare for all would bring desperately needed financial stability to the lives of everyday Americans, to every unit of government, and to businesses large and small.
As you turn your focus towards health care, we urge you to meet with policy experts who have studied this problem for decades, as well as the health care professionals operating at the front lines of this crisis. Physicians for a National Health Program is a 22,000-member nonprofit research and education organization that advocates for single-payer health care. Our "Physicians' Proposal for Single-Payer Health Care Reform" is a research-based plan for expanding health coverage to all Americans while eliminating the waste and profiteering of private insurance, and the inefficiencies they inflict on doctors and hospitals.
We would be happy to meet with you to discuss how single payer could benefit your workers, your bottom line, and the American economy as a whole.
Sincerely,
Carol Paris, M.D.
President, Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP)
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