Paul Friedman

Recent Activity

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  Paul signed the petition | over 2 years ago

  Pass Health Reform Now!
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  Paul signed the petition | over 2 years ago

  Support Real Health Care Reform for Vulnerable Elderly Patients
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  Paul signed the petition | over 2 years ago

  Tell Congress: Repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
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  Paul signed the petition | over 2 years ago

  Tell the House: Don't Rubber Stamp the Senate's Health Care Bill
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  Paul signed the petition | over 2 years ago

  Fix The Health Reform Bill!
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  Paul commented on the article | over 3 years ago

  The Top Five Controversies in Health Care Today

  It is very disappointing to a supporter of a single payer system like myself to learn that the most influential people in the new government are planning to maintain the insurance industry.  Well, there is quite a variety of roles for this industry in a single payer system.  (Please read the 2004 WHO report, What are the equity, efficiency, cost containment and choice implications of private health-care funding in western Europe?) Obviously, insurance can cover items of healthcare which are beyond the basic benefits to which everyone is entitled.  But beyond that is the possibility of covering some of the same basic benefits (tweie), but at a carefully regulated profit rate, as in Germany.  Can we now do regulation?  Eliminating advertising and teams to deny coverage will save citizens a lot of money; so will eliminating the multiplicity of insurance forms that most doctors have to contend with.  The main problem in control of a system with significant duplicative private insurance is to guarantee that access will not be compromised.  This problem of social justice has yet to be solved.  But if we are looking at cost, it is clear that even the regulated overhead of private insurance is 2-4X as great as that of public sector coverage in each country.  A country that has a serious economic problem, like the U.S., cannot afford private insurance any longer!