HARRISBURG, October 20, 2009 - State Sen. Jim Ferlo (D-Pittsburgh) and a coalition of Single Payer Healthcare advocates today rallied at the State Capitol to urge the adoption of state or federal sponsored universal healthcare insurance.
“We need real solutions to solve our current healthcare crisis,” Ferlo said. “The single payer strategy is the only way to remove the waste in the system and provide universal coverage.”
Ferlo, who introduced the Family and Business Healthcare Security Act (Senate Bill 400), said that his legislation carefully and thoroughly sets out a blueprint for the bold steps necessary to accomplish the following goals:
- Quality medical, dental and mental health care for every Pennsylvanian.
- Establishment of an efficient Health Care Trust owned and controlled by the people of Pennsylvania as the single payer for health care services thus eliminating the existing wasteful and inefficient system of multiple third party payers.
- Relieving employers from the responsibility of selecting, pricing, and administering health insurance.
- Elimination of all traditional health insurance premiums, co-pays and deductibles.
- Full funding of prescription drugs while leveraging the buying power of 12 million Pennsylvanians to lower the cost.
- Two new taxes would be imposed to pay for the program. A 3 percent personal income tax on individuals and a 10% payroll tax on businesses along with existing Medicaid/Medicare, Tobacco Master Settlement, and any other existing healthcare funding will fund the single payer healthcare model.
“We have organized a very diverse group that allows us to demonstrate wide-spread support for the single payer concept,” Ferlo added. “The last step is to bring our story and solutions to other elected officials so that they can understand and appreciate that a single payer system is the best path to take.”
“Over 45 million Americans remain uninsured nationwide and billions of dollars are annually lost to profiteering and waste in our healthcare system,” Ferlo said. “Single payer offers an opportunity to change all that.”
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