Sign me up for single-payer.

Last night Todd and I attended a community meeting about healthcare. It was run by the local democratic group who organized much of the Obama volunteering I did during the campaign, and they are using Obama’s transition site to funnel information back to him. Apparently these meetings have been happening throughout the country since December 15th.

As with so many of these, the meeting was a mixed bag. Many people told us about personal frustrations with healthcare: One woman had to fight for months to have her insurance company approve a test her daughter badly needed. Another had a friend released (on less than a day’s notice) from a rehab/physical therapy facility because her insurance-covered stay was over. Her friend was immobile and completely unable to take care of herself. The staff didn’t even help the woman out of the facility—her friends had to wrestle her into a taxi without any support.

These types of stories were not surprising but still affecting and awful to hear. The best part of the evening, though, was the information presented by a very persuasive physician who attended to speak to us. She’s part of a group of physicians who advocate for a single-payer system. 97% of Medicare (a single-payer system) goes to medical care, compared with approximately 70% of private insurance money: the rest covers overhead, bureaucracy, etc. The efficiency gained by a single-payer system basically covers the cost of providing care for currently uninsured Americans. Couple this with the incredible savings that occur when people can get preventive care and immediate care when needed (rather than waiting until a situation has escalated and an emergency room visit is needed, which is what many uninsured folks do), and the numbers really work in favor of a universal, single-payer system.

We talked about a lot more (the inherent impossibility of a good for-profit medical system being one of the ones that stuck with me), but my take-away was that a single-payer system would be an incredible improvement over what we have. There are so many of these systems throughout the world already that we’re in the enviable position of reviewing what is working and what isn’t and creating something thoughtfully. I have my doubts about the ability to get this enacted: The insurance companies have deep pockets and busy lobbyists and people really fear change. I hope to be proven wrong, though. This country needs universal health care.