[Occupymendocino] Single Payer Health Care Might be Coming

[Richard Karch]

The Wall Street Journal
December 18, 2012
Cleveland Clinic Diagnoses Health-Care Act
By Anna Wilde Mathews

Just over a year from now, the Affordable Care Act is set to unleash enormous change in the health-care sector, and Cleveland Clinic Chief Executive Delos "Toby" Cosgrove is preparing his institution by expanding its reach and striving to make caregivers more cost-conscious.

WSJ: Do you think employers will stop providing health insurance, even though they can pay a penalty under the health overhaul law?

Dr. Cosgrove: The first ones will be the small companies... Every CEO I've talked to knows how much he'd save between insuring his people and paying the federal penalty.

WSJ: What does that tell you?

Dr. Cosgrove: The first time some big player does that, it's going to fall like dominoes. What that does is drive everybody to the exchanges.

WSJ: What does that mean to you?

Dr. Cosgrove: It's going to be a faster move towards one payer. Increasingly, people think that in 10 years you're going to have 75% of the health-care costs paid by the federal government.

WSJ: You think we're moving toward a single-payer system?

Dr. Cosgrove: Well, the question is how long...I don't think in the next 10 years, but I think it probably is going to head in that direction.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324677204578187613286882532.html?mod=health_newsreel


Comment:  Cleveland Clinic President and CEO Delos "Toby" Cosgrove confirms what Physicians for a National Health Program has been saying all along. It's not whether we'll ever have single payer, it's how long.

It's our job to expedite it.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20121221/0e0426c0/attachment.html