York Township Democratic Organization

Resolution In Support Of A Single-Payer Health Program For The State Of Illinois

WHEREAS everyone deserves access to affordable quality healthcare; and.

WHEREAS the number of Illinoisans without health insurance now exceeds 1.8 million; and.

WHEREAS tens of millions with insurance have coverage so skimpy that a major illness would lead to financial ruin, and medical illness and bills contribute to one-half of all bankruptcies; and.

WHEREAS proposals for "consumer directed healthcare" would worsen this situation by penalizing the sick, discouraging prevention and saddling many working families with huge medical bills; and.

WHEREAS managed care and other market-based reforms have failed to contain healthcare costs, which now threaten the international competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers; and.

WHEREAS administrative waste stemming from our reliance on private insurers consumes onethird of Illinois health spending; and.

WHEREAS U.S. hospitals spend 24.3% of their budgets on billing and administration while hospitals under Canada’s single payer system spend only 12.9%; and.

WHEREAS American physicians are inundated with bureaucratic tasks and costs that Canadian physicians avoid; and.

WHEREAS Harvard researchers estimated more than $13 billion in administrative waste could be recaptured in Illinois by replacing private insurance companies with a single public payer, enough to cover the uninsured and to improve coverage for all those who now have only partial coverage; and.

WHEREAS "consumer directed healthcare" adds yet another expensive layer of bureaucrats – the financial firms that manage health savings accounts; and.

WHEREAS entrusting care to profit-oriented firms diverts billions of dollars to outrageous incomes for CEOs and threatens the quality of care; and.

WHEREAS a coalition of physician, labor, disability, community, and other groups have introduced a proposal for a single-payer system, which would assure universal coverage of all medically necessary services, contain costs by slashing bureaucracy, protect the doctor patient relationship, assure patients a completely free choice of doctors, and allow physicians a free choice of practice settings; now therefore.

BE IT RESOLVED that the York Township Democratic Organization expresses its support for a statewide single-payer system such as that described in HB 311, and urges the Illinois General Assembly to enact such a program within the current Assembly.

For more information on the struggle for real universal health care in Illinois, please visit the Health Care For All Illinois site.