Our health care system is failing. It denies care to many in need and often leaves families - even those with coverage - in financial ruin. Huge administrative costs and profits divert resources from care to bureaucrats and investors. Insurers' dictates and the pressures of competition and profit threaten medicine's most sacred values.

We, the undersigned, endorse a fundamental change in America's health care - the creation of a comprehensive National Health Insurance (NHI) Program. Such a program would cover every American for all necessary medical care. Patients would receive an NHI card entitling them to care at any hospital, doctor's office or clinic, as well as coverage for prescription drugs and supplies. The United States National Health Insurance Act, HR 676, embodies these principles and we urge its passage.

Under NHI, a single, public insurance plan would replace the current patchwork of thousands of private plans. Eliminating the existing complex and redundant insurance bureaucracy and the paperwork burden it inflicts on doctors, nurses and hospitals would generate massive administrative savings. Overall, NHI would save about $350 billion annually on bureaucracy and profits, more than enough to pay for covering the uninsured and improving coverage for the tens of millions who are currently UNDER-insured.

Most hospitals and clinics would remain privately owned and operated, receiving a budget from the NHI to cover all operating costs. The NHI would pay for care in private doctors' offices, as well as in group practices and clinics.

A National Health Insurance Program is the only affordable option for universal, comprehensive coverage. Lesser reforms that retain the private insurance industry cannot streamline bureaucracy; as a result, expanding coverage inevitably means increasing costs, and reducing costs inevitably means limiting coverage. But NHI could both expand coverage and reduce costs. It would squeeze out bureaucratic waste and eliminate the perverse incentives that threaten the quality of care and the ethical foundations of medicine and nursing. For patients, NHI would assure comprehensive coverage and a free choice of doctors and hospitals. For physicians and nurses, NHI would minimize bureaucratic hassles and costs, and nurture the best traditions of these honored professions.

We call on our political leaders to place the needs of the American people above those of the insurance and drug companies that have hitherto blocked real health reform.

Quentin Young, M.D.
National Coordinator, Physicians for a National Health Program

Garrett Adams, M.D.
John Bower, M.D.
Olveen Carrasquillo, M.D.
Aaron Carroll, M.D.
Oliver Fein, M.D.
Claudia Fegan, M.D.
Gerald Frankel, M.D.
David Himmelstein, M.D.
Joseph Jarvis, M.D.
Bree Johnston, M.D.
Sal Sandoval, M.D.
Greg Silver, M.D.
Steffie Woolhandler, M.D.
Robert Zarr, M.D.

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Comments:

0-25 of 5657 signatures

Number	Date	Name	Location	Comments:
5657	November 18, 2009	Jose Duarte	San Jose, CA
5656	November 17, 2009	Esther Salas	San Jose, CA
5655	November 17, 2009	Harman Pabla	San Jose, CA	I'm with the movement!!
5654	November 16, 2009	Sara Creed	Chesaning, MI
5653	November 13, 2009	Zandra Gregg	Jonesborough, TN
5652	November 07, 2009	keith jadin	green bay, WI	single payer or nothing,K.I.S.S. keep it simple stupid
5651	November 06, 2009	Daniel Durning	Brooklyn, NY
5650	November 05, 2009	Eric Wrent	Virginia Beach, VA
5649	October 29, 2009	William Potts	winston, OR
5648	October 29, 2009	William Potts	winston, OR	I have not had health care for many many years. I have applied at many only to be denied. I have health issues and would love to be well but just can't afford it :((( The doctors and prescription cost are so high who can go but those who can already afford it. This is a sad issue in our country.
5647	October 26, 2009	Michael Dinielli	Virginia Beach, VA
5646	October 25, 2009	Bill Van Dusen	Elgin, IL
5645	October 24, 2009	Megan Osborn	Fairfax, VA
5644	October 23, 2009	Mike McDonald	Dayton, NV
5643	October 22, 2009	Laura Schlegel & family	Chicago, IL	A healthy society is exponentially profitable for ALL of US!
5642	October 20, 2009	Dane Hager	Greenfield, WI
5641	October 20, 2009	Aryianda Zicarelli	Greenfield, WI
5640	October 13, 2009	Diana Afarian-Hunter R.N.	South Deerfield, MA
5639	October 13, 2009	Michael Sakowich	Nederland, CO	I've been without healthcare since 1994. I have worked for large corporations while in school which promised healthcare for part-time employees, but they always gave me an hour less of work a week to qualify. Now I am self employed and struggling to pay rent many months. How can I possibly pay for personal health insurance. If something ever to go wrong I would be denied the basic RIGHT to healthcare. If I was provided for wiht the care I needed in that situation I would likely never be able to pay it back. Please support this plan for me, my brothers and sisters, and the children of America.
5638	October 12, 2009	Roni Hughes	grand prairie, TX
5637	October 12, 2009	Roni Hughes	grand prairie, TX
5636	October 10, 2009	William Gills	Mercer, PA
5635	October 08, 2009	Joan Rothchild Hardin	New York, NY	A single payor option will help reduce the grip of insurance companies & Big Pharma on health care in this country. And if we win this battle, then we can educate people on the difference between prevention & early detection - that the purpose of tests like mammograms, colonoscopies, and blood pressure readings is EARLY DETECTION of already existing problems, not prevention. That PREVENTION requires people's participation in their own health care - making dietary changes, stopping the overuse of antibiotics, not taking antibiotics when they don't have a bacterial infection, becoming familiar with herbal & other alternatives for preventing diseases & medical conditions (acupuncture, Kinetic Awareness, therapeutic massage) , and smoking cessation.
5634	October 08, 2009	Carolyn Shlafer	Edmonds, WA	Health care is a basic human right, not a privilege.
5633	October 07, 2009	Suzanne Marcinkiewicz	Wilmington, NC

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