Single-Payer Resources
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Single-Payer Overviews
“Proposal of the Physicians’’ Working Group for Single-Payer National Health Insurance,” JAMA 290(6): Aug 30, 2003
A useful handout detailing the main features of single payer.
A great overview of the need for and logic of a single-payer system. Perfect as an introductory handout.
Another great introductory handout.
A great overview on the benefits of a single-payer system by Public Citizen.
Rep. Kucinich talks with Truthdig about the health care crisis in America.
Single Payer: Facts and Myths
Information on current status of the uninsured from the US Census Bureau.
A frequently-updated catalog of the most-asked questions about single payer.
A paper refuting many of the myths associated with single payer.
A series of brief papers debunking the common misconceptions about the Canadian
health system.
3 authors give compelling evidence that moral hazard is a poor basis on which to
formulate health policy.
Health Economics and Financing
How much is the sick U.S. health care system costing you?
A review of government and independent studies of the cost of single-payer system.
Woolhandler, et al “Costs of Health Administration in the U.S. and Canada,” NEJM 349(8) Sept. 21, 2003
Woolhandler, et al “Administrative Costs in U.S. Hosptials,” NEJM 329, Aug. 5, 1993
Woolhandler, et al. “Paying for National Health Insurance – And Not Getting It,” Health Affairs 21(4); July/Aug. 2002
Rasell, Edith “An Equitable Way to Pay for Universal Coverage,” International Journal of Health Services. 29(1); 1999
Grumbach, et al. JAMA, May 15, 1991, Vol. 265 No. 19
The Case Against For-Profit Care
Editorial by David Himmelstein, MD and Steffie Woolhandler, MD in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Devereaux, PJ “Payments at For-Profit and Non-Profit Hospitals,” Can. Med. Assoc. J., Jun 2004; 170
Devereaux, PJ “Mortality Rates of For-Profit and Non-Profit Hospitals,” Can. Med. Assoc. J, May 2002; 166
Himmelstein, et al “Costs of Care and Admin. At For-Profit and Other Hospitals in the U.S.” NEJM 336, 1997
Himmelstein, et al “Quality of Care at Investor-Owned vs. Not-for-Profit HMOs” JAMA 282(2); July 14, 1999
MedPac Report, Jun 9, 2006
Quality and Malpractice
A Forum Report by Gordon Schiff, MD.
A brief by PNHP (makes a great handout!).
Schiff, et al “A Better Quality Alternative” JAMA, 272(10); Sept. 12 1994
Schiff, et al “You Can’t Leap a Chasm in Two Jumps,” Public Health Reports 116, Sept / Oct 2001
The Failures of Other Reform Options
International Health Systems
Canada
US General Accounting Office Report, June 1991
Armstrong, et al “A Perfect System?” excerpted from Universal Health Care, New York Press, 1998
PNHP Brief, May 2006.
Report of the Romanow Commission.
International Comparisons
Anderson, G. et al, "It’s the Prices, Stupid: Why the United States is so Different from Other Countries," Health Affairs 22(3), May/June 2004
Hussey, P. et al "How Does the Quality of Care Compare in Five Countries?" Health Affairs 23(3) May/June 2004
Single-Payer Bibliography
From Physicians for a National Health Program, used with permission.
Check Out
Health Care For All Texas
Learn About MedicareforAll.org Action Steps
MedicareforAll.org compares our current system to an improved "Medicare for All" single-payer system. Many resources are available to help you understand what single payer would look like in practice and why it would be a better system for Americans. Join the "Million Letters" campaign.
Looking for help with health care in Texas? Check out our Texas Resources page.
Single Payer is health care based on need, not ability to pay
