Despite limited advances provided by the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. healthcare system remains “uniquely wasteful” and profit-driven, leaving tens of millions without any insurance and even more underinsured.
As a result, say leading physicians, “the right to medical care remains a dream deferred.”
In an effort to finally realize that dream, thousands of medical professionals across the country have signed onto the “Physicians’ Proposal for Single-Payer Health Care Reform,” calling for a publicly financed, single-payer National Health Program (NHP) that would cover all Americans for all medically necessary care.
The plan, unveiled Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health, aims to “remedy the persistent shortcomings of the current health care system,” reads an accompanying editorial.
It comes as the 2016 presidential race has thrust the issue of healthcare back into the national spotlight, and while the proposal is non-partisan, it hews closely to Bernie Sanders’ call for Medicare-for-All.