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An Act to
Establish the Massachusetts Health Care Trust – S.755
Judith Deutsch,
LWVM Health Care Specialist
Urge
your legislators to support the
“Act to Establish the Massachusetts Health Care Trust” – S.755. Through a
single-payer system, the Massachusetts Health Care Trust will effect sufficient
administrative economies to cover everyone in Massachusetts with comprehensive,
quality health care using the money already being pumped into our health care
system with federal, state, individual, and business funds.
Background
After a careful study, the League
adopted a position in 1993 to promote a health care system for the United States
that provides access to a basic level of quality care for all U.S. residents and
controls health care costs. The position calls for a health insurance plan
financed through general taxes, commonly known as the “single-payer” approach.
The Legislation
The Massachusetts Health Care Trust
Bill will:
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guarantee every Massachusetts resident
high-quality health care including, but not limited to, services needed for
the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness and injury, and mental
health, dental care, and podiatric services
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provide prescription drugs, therapeutic
devices, prosthetic devices, eyeglasses, hearing aids, and other medical
supplies
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establish a Massachusetts Health Care
Trust that will be appointed by the Governor and have representation from
consumers, professionals, and government
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provide rehabilitation for sick and
disabled persons, hospice care, and long-term care in institutional and
community-based settings
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pay – through unified administration – for
the health care of every Massachusetts resident with federal, state and
private monies already being pumped into our health care system
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effect tremendous economies in
administration by eliminating the multiplicity of parties now involved in
collecting from those who are insured and in paying health-care providers
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retrain the workers now involved in
administration who will no longer be needed for that work
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not increase the overhead burden on small
businesses
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lessen the rate of increase in costs of
health care in our state and put Massachusetts on a par with the other
industrial nations of the world.
Lead Sponsors
Senator Steven Tolman and Representative Frank Hynes
Talking Points
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The costs of health care continue to
skyrocket and care deteriorates. Our nation spends more per person for health
care than any other nation in the world, and Massachusetts pays more per
person for health care than any other state in our nation. Yet the United
States is alone among the industrialized nations of the world in not covering
everyone with regular health care.
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Our multiple-payer system pays out as much
as 40¢ of each health-care dollar for administration, while single-payer
systems use as little as 4¢ of each dollar for administration.
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Too many people are going bankrupt, too
many people are going without proper medical and dental treatment, and too
many businesses and the budgets of too many governments (including our
nation’s, our state’s and our communities’) are hurting because of ever-higher
health-care-insurance costs.
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