Note the question mark in the title of this upcoming event. Also note that the sponsors include supporters of Obama’s plan — Health Care for America NOW! — and the single-payer approach – Mass-Care.
Saturday May 30th, 2009, 9:00-3:00, Walter Amphitheater, 260 Longwood Ave
The Obama administration has pledged to bring forward national health care reform this year. But what does that mean to residents of Massachusetts ? How can we build a movement for real health care reform?
We invite you to attend the MA Teach-In on Health Care Reform to hear the answer to these and other important questions on health…The event is free, and open to the public.
The speakers include pharma critic and former NEJM editor Marcia Angell. She and her new husband – Arnold Relman, another NEJM vet – could become Boston’s second single-payer power couple. In a recent letter to the Globe they claim that the state needs a single-payer system to make their proposed global payment system work. .
The state’s Special Commission on the Health Care Payment System correctly identifies the current fee-for-service system as an incentive to oversupply medical services in an uncoordinated fashion, but the proposed global payment plan isn’t the answer because it could not be implemented in today’s fragmented delivery system with so many independent doctors and facilities.
The most effective way to control costs would be through a single-payer universal funding plan, connected to a care delivery system based on nonprofit, multi-specialty groups of salaried physicians and government-paid, nonprofit facilities.
Boston Health News 