For more information contact (410) 235-3504.

Members, friends, and inquirers about Healthcare-Now of Maryland are all invited to the Healthcare-Now of Maryland monthly meetings.

Check us out.  For contact info go to http://www.mdsinglepayer.org/about/contact-us/

Maryland is on an unsustainable economic path; health care costs are absorbing a growing share of personal income. Between 1991 and 2011, health care spending in Maryland increased by $35 billion, nearly 10-times the rate of population growth and almost twice the rate of growth in per-capita income. Should health care spending continue to increase at this rate, spending will pass $100 billion in a little over a decade. Little of this increased spending can be attributed to improvements in health care; instead, the fastest growth has been in administration and billing operations while many remain without adequate health insurance or access to needed care.

The Maryland Health Security Act (MHSA) would put Maryland on a sustainable path by controlling health care costs while giving all citizens access to quality health care. It would establish the Maryland Health System Trust (MHST) as a single-payer system to finance health care, paying for all necessary medical care including hospital care, visits to doctors, nurses, occupational and physical therapy, prescription drugs, medical devices, medically necessary nursing home care and home health care. By reducing administrative costs and anti- competitive market practices, the MHST could save over $13.2 billion in 2013, or over 24% of existing spending. These savings would allow the expansion of coverage to all Maryland residents while still saving over $6 billion, or over $1,000 per person.

The MHST would be funded by payroll taxes and a levy on non-wage income including capital gains, profits, rents, dividends, and interest. The shift from insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses to taxes linked with income would especially benefit lower- and middle-income Marylanders, businesses would also benefit from the reduced administrative burden and because payroll taxes would be less than most now pay in insurance. By lowering payroll costs, the MHST would make Maryland businesses more competitive, producing an additional 70,000 new jobs.

For the past several years, we have lobbied and testified on behalf of the Maryland Health Security Act, the state single-payer bill. Last year we raised funds for an economic impact study to prove the cost savings to the state of a single payer health system. The next step to win single payer in Maryland is to build a strong statewide grassroots campaign to back up the legislative work.

We need your help to raise the necessary funds to hire a full time organizer. We are a significant way along toward our goal. One hundred percent of your donation will be used to pay salary and health benefits, as well transportation costs and office supplies for the organizer. Office space and support from a non-profit grassroots organization have been donated already.

The organizer will work on a statewide campaign to build leadership in counties across the state. We have many volunteers already who are ready to be engaged in the campaign. In the future we will need volunteers for canvassing and setting up public meetings.

Please support the Maryland Health Care is a Human Right campaign today. You can make a single donation, or better yet, become a sustainer.

We can make Maryland the next state to pass single payer health care. Maryland lives are depending on it. Please donate now.

To make a tax-deductible donation by credit card go here or send a check made out to Maryland PNHP with organizer in the memo line and mail to Healthcare-Now Maryland c/o/ Eric Naumburg, M.D., 6163 Devon Drive, Columbia, MD 21044.

Only donations given to PNHP (Physicians for a National Health Program) are tax-deductible. Healthcare-Now Maryland does not have tax-deductible status.

Healthcare-Now! Maryland is formulating a new campaign strategy based on the principles of universality, equity in access, equity in financing, transparency, accountability and participation.  Simply put healthcare should be a public good like the police and the fire department.  Getting Wall Street out of healthcare is the only way to create a healthcare system that satisfies these principles.

4:37 PM EDT, June 1, 2011

The headline reads emergency room visits at Howard County General Hospital “might hit a high mark” this year. We know this means that the ER is being misused as a source of primary care. Don’t feel bad, Howard County; in Massachusetts, the model for national health reform, emergency room visits hit a new high last year, and they have under 5 percent with no health insurance, while Maryland has a close to 15 percent uninsured.

The overuse of the ER is a symptom of the lack of primary-care providers in the county. Why the shortage? It is our faith in the markets to make things work. Health Insurers have the upper hand; they decide what primary care is worth. The result is the pay is too low to attract enough primary-care providers.

The reliance on a profit-driven market place to make the medical system work is a problem beyond a shortage of primary care in wealthy county like Howard. The cost of health insurance has more than doubled in the past nine years and the employee share of this expense is rising. Wages have not and cannot keep up with this pace. Before too long most of our salaries will be going to health insurance.

There is a better solution. It is a single-payer health-care system, a program like Medicare that includes everyone but with expanded coverage. The administrative waste in health care is staggering. We spend over 1/3 of our health care dollars on it. Administrative hassles eat up over 10 percent of our doctors’ time that could be put to patient care. A government-run, taxpayer-financed privately delivered system would eliminate much of this waste.

The payment system is streamlined; the middle man (health insurers) is gone. Decisions about doctor pay and distribution of resources can now be made based on medical need first and then profit. With the savings, health-care coverage could be made universal, and expanded to include all needed medical services plus dental and pharmacy. The academic studies to prove this have been done, repeatedly. More importantly, international experience with single-payer systems show the same outcome.

Vermont has passed legislation that will lead to universal health care based on a single-payer system in their state. The Vermont bill starts from the principle that access to health care is a human right. Right now, health care is being treated as a commodity, rationed based on ability to pay. Maryland has similar legislation to Vermont; the Maryland Health Security Act (SB 388). I urge you to find out about it.

Eric Naumburg

Columbia

Eric Naumburg, M.D., is Maryland Health Security Act coordinator for Healthcare-Now of Maryland.

www.baltimoresun.com/explore/howard/opinion-talk/letter-editor/ph-ho-cf-letters-060211-7-20110601,0,818858.story

Teams of Healthcare-Now of Maryland members have been in Annapolis the past few weeks meeting with state legislators and asking for their support. Of course, as a constituent, your voice is more powerful than ours. That is why we need your help.

Please visit the new page on our website and take a moment to send a note to your state delegate(s) and senator. It only takes a few minutes. You can use our letter or write your own. You don’t even need to know who your state legislators are. Healthcare-Now will find out for you, based on your address, and will provide you with their names and photos. Just go here.

Thank you for taking the time to support the Maryland Health Security Act.

We are asking you to take a moment to contact your Maryland senators and representative to offer support for this letter. You can do so by clicking here.