Why Our Bodies Ourselves Backs Single-Payer Health Care
Single-payer systems are based on the idea that everyone deserves high quality health care. We believe that healthcare is a public good and a human right, not a commodity to enrich investors. All of us have the right to health care that is available, accessible, acceptable, and high quality.
The United States is still the only industrialized country in the world that does not provide access to basic health care for all. Because most U.S. health care insurance is tied to benefits offered on a voluntary basis by employers, many people find themselves scrambling for health care when their jobs or other life situations change. Although the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) made Medicaid coverage available for the poorest populations of people, ten states have chosen not to accept the ACA’s federally funded Medicaid expansion leaving many women without health care coverage (falling into “coverage gaps”). We are pleased that the ACA bars plans from charging women higher premiums than men for the same level of coverage (gender rating) or from disqualifying women from coverage because they had certain pre-existing medical conditions, including pregnancy. However, the reality remains that women earn less than men, have more health care needs than men, and experience greater life disruptions due to reproduction and family.
Although the health insurance Marketplaces created in the wake of the ACA make it easier for women to acquire insurance after divorce or after leaving the paid workforce to care for family members, the price of policies remains out of reach for far too many women.
Then we are faulted for needing so‑called entitlements such as Social Security, Medicare, and disability benefits, though we may have been contributing to these funds for many years. Medicare is criticized as being too expensive, when it should be considered a model for a universal, single-payer health care insurance system.
.jpg){kind=link}
In the US, single payer would build on systems like Medicare. They are publicly financed, instead of being administered through private insurance plans, and they cover everyone. One single payer—the government—replaces the many private insurance plans that now waste billions on administration. Even more important, it gives the government the authority to negotiate prices with drug companies, hospitals, and other health care providers, which are key to controlling costs while protecting care.
Our Bodies Ourselves has supported single-payer proposals since they were first introduced in Congress in the 1970s! Single payer plans are the only way to ensure that women maintain healthcare coverage as life circumstances – including reproductive health needs -- change.
Decades of evidence, drawn from all over the world, shows that these plans can best address women’s and gender-expansive people’s needs and improve our health. Coverage would be completely independent from employment and from marriage. The plans would better allocate resources and reduce payment incentives that have been obstacles to investing in training more primary care professionals and that lead to overuse and misuse of drugs and medical procedures.
.jpg){kind=link}
A single payer system would:
Encourage better care for chronic illnesses: Women use chronic care services far more than men. Because caring for people with chronic disease—heart disease, cancer, immune conditions, chronic pain—now accounts for about 90 percent of all U.S. health care spending, women will benefit substantially from more efficient and effective ways to deal with chronic illnesses.
Eliminate substandard tiers of care: Exploitive health insurance would be eliminated.
Cover everyone: All women, including the most marginalized–homeless, disabled, unemployed, working for employers who don’t offer insurance, full-time caregivers, and otherwise excluded from the private health insurance market would receive health and medical care.
Address the cost issues that send women into debt and bankruptcy: Medical debt is an enormous concern for many women. A 2022 study by KFF found that almost half (48% percent) of women have medical debt or report problems with medical bills, compared with about a third (34 percent) of men. Some of this difference is likely related to childbirth expenses and lower average income among women than men. Single payer means not only an end to medical bankruptcy, but an end to any medical costs.
Reduce the incidence of medical malpractice: Assuring people they would not have to worry about paying for medical care if they experienced bad medical outcomes would relieve the pressure on medical malpractice premiums.
Reduce the time women spend dealing with (fighting for) health care services for themselves and their families: We would no longer need to research and choose insurance plans, operate “within network,” get prior authorizations for care, or dispute insurance companies’ denials of care. Significant time, energy, and peace of mind would be gained.
Enhance the working environment for healthcare professionals: There would be no need to spend hours each day on pointless documentation in order to justify billing insurance companies for patient services. Doctors and allied health care professionals could focus on providing high quality care, rather than haggling with insurance companies. Fear of malpractice lawsuits would no longer drive between 60-90 percent of physicians and hospitals to practice “defensive medicine.” Medical malpractice insurance, which drives many physicians away from obstetrics and gynecology, would be replaced by a system of guaranteed health care.