ACA: 2 W.Va. Liberals Fight Law; Want Insurance Firms Out Totally

February 20, 2012

Two West Virginia residents are among the people and groups who filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court last week, arguing that uninsured Americans should not be forced to buy health insurance from private insurance companies.

That requirement under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which President Obama signed into law on March 23, 2010, is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2014.

A coalition of medical doctors and nonprofit groups filed the friend-of-the-court brief Monday. They argue that the requirement to buy private insurance "exceeds the limits of Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce."

Hedda Haning, a retired Charleston physician and member of Physicians for a National Healthcare Plan, and Russell Mokhiber, a Berkeley Springs resident who edits the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter newsletter, were among those signing the brief.

Unlike many of those who have challenged the Affordable Care Act in federal court, Haning and Mokhiber argue that a single-payer system - like the United Kingdom'sNational Health Service - is the answer to the country's health-care woes. Mokhiber helped organize the group Single Payer Action.

"The only solution to the healthcare crisis in the United States, which will both control costs and achieve comprehensive coverage for the entire population," the brief states, "is to adopt a national publicly-financed single payer health insurance system."

Under that system, one public agency would handle all billing and administrative tasks, the brief points out.

Mokhiber said, "Under Obama's law, individuals are required to purchase health insurance from a private health insurance company. This is the first time the federal government has ever required people to buy a health-insurance product from a private corporation."

"That is very, very unpopular," Mokhiber said. "Most Republicans and conservatives want to knock out that mandate, while Democrats and liberals have supported it.

"We are the only liberal, left-of-center group that says this requirement should be knocked out. And we believe there is a growing public sentiment supporting that. This law [ACA] keeps the insurance industry in the game."

"I have been a strong supporter of single-payer health care for a long time. It is the only way we will be able to take care of all of our citizens and be able to afford it," Haning said.

"We pay twice as much for our health care in this country as many other industrialized countries do, but ... we are far down the list in terms of results. Something you hear all the time is that we have the best health-care system in the world. We do not.

"Forcing uninsured Americans to buy health insurance is a very bad way to go to try to take care of everybody. The purpose of health insurance corporations is to make money. And they make money by not taking care of sick people," Haning said.

The brief states: "Nearly 50 million Americans risk denial of essential healthcare services because they lack insurance from private insurance companies."

Many of those 50 million are working people paid low wages.

Haning said, "We are dealing with the corporate takeover of medicine.

"We have alternatives. Medicare has been wonderful. People who use Medicare, who are taken care of by Medicare, love it."

The brief also points out, "Congress has already implemented successful single payer systems that provide universal coverage to certain subsets of the population, including Medicare for citizens aged 65 and older and the Veterans Health Administration for those who have served in the military."

Adopting a single-payer system would not increase the costs of health care, the brief says.

The ACA, the brief argues, "does little to reduce the cost of healthcare administration, which accounts for 31 percent of all health spending in the United States. ...

"Instead, it entrenches, by force of federal law, the private insurance companies that comprise the greatest source of administrative waste in the current system."

The administrative costs for Medicare, the brief points out, "have remained steadily low - about 2 percent of program expenditures. ...

"By contrast, private insurance companies estimate that their administrative costs, including 'commission, premium tax and profit,' range as high as 16.7 percent of overall spending."

Canada's single-payer health system uses an even lower percentage to administer its expenditures.

Today, salaries paid to some insurance executives range between $10 million and $20 million annually, the brief adds.

Haning said, "I practiced medicine for over 40 years and still have not gotten used to what the costs are. Some young women pay $50 a month, or more, for birth control pills.

"Many medications have been around for a long time. They are not expensive medications. There is no excuse for how much people have to pay."

Reach Paul J. Nyden at pjnyden@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5164.