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Amid concerns about a nationwide nurse shortage, a new study found that how many patients a nurse has to care for can be a matter of life or death. University of Pennsylvania researchers found that each additional patient in a nurse's workload translated to about a 7 percent increase in the likelihood the patient would die within 30 days of admission to the hospital. In the study, researchers stated that the new California law setting nurse staffing requirements is a credible approach to reducing patient deaths and retaining nurses.
From: the Internet - 10/22/02

Al Gore endorsed a single payer national health program at a forum in New York on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 and again the next evening on ABC's 20/20 program,. He declared that he had come "reluctantly" to the conclusion that single-payer is the best solution to the nation's health care crisis. Long supported by the left, single payer plans involve all money spent on health care being collected by a public agency or trust fund, which then pays for comprehensive coverage, delivered privately and publicly, for all citizens. Issues of taxation, quality of care, availability of care, and medical innovation are all implicated in such a system, with Canada's plan often used as the basis for understanding and analysis. For Gore, this represents a major switch. Although many of the people who worked on the Clinton health plan at the beginning of the Clinton-Gore administration were intellectually and morally sympathetic to single-payer, it was rejected as being simply too radical and too big a political target. Gore's decision to go public with his new position could be viewed as part of his reported avowal to speak more from the heart on big issues he cares about.
From: the internet, 11/15/02

"The situation in California is at crisis level ...
Los Angeles County is planning to close major hospitals including Harbor General and Rancho Los Amigos, the latter the premier rehabilitation facility in the world...We have an aging population and Medicare is cutting back on reimbursement. No 'fat' is left in the system...It may well be that a universal health plan, covering everyone regardless of ability to pay, could be funded out of the total current expenditure on the present system, which has so many distortions..."
Michael T. Kennedy, M.D., Orange County Register, 12/1/02

Government expenditures for health care accounted for 59.8% of total U.S. health care costs in 1999, according to a Harvard Medical School study published in the journal Health Affairs. At $2,604 for every man, woman and child in the nation, government spending was the highest of any country - including those with universal health insurance. In fact, government spending exceeded the total health spending, both public and private, of every country except Switzerland. Estimated total U.S. health spending for 2002 is $5,427 per capita, with government's share being $3,245.
From : S. Woolhandler, M.D., et al., in Health Affairs, 7/9/02

Measure 23 on the Oregon ballot in November 2002 would have created a statewide single-payer health care system, covering all residents of the state. A heavily funded campaign by the insurance industry ensured that the measure did not pass. The plan called for three sources of funds to pay the cost of universal coverage: fully one third from current federal, state and local government programs, and the balance from a progressive personal income tax ranging from 0 to 8% depending on income, and a progressive payroll tax replacing current insurance premiums paid by employers ranging from 3 to 11.5% depending on the size of the payroll. Failure of the measure leaves 423,000 Oregonians, many of them working families, and including 70,000 children, without health insurance.
From: Ida Hellander, M.D., PNHP, 11/14/02

"Consumers' Union's goal for health care reform developed over the past 64 years is: Every person must have access to quality health care at an affordable price, with the right to choose providers and the right to have complaints resolved fairly... Our patchwork system of paying for health insurance leaves millions of families in financial crisis when serious illness strikes. The working poor are priced out of health insurance ...Piecemeal reforms will not solve the problem. What's needed is coverage for everyone in a pool that spreads the risk, with each person paying a fair share, and every person enjoying quality coverage."
From: Sarah Charlesworth and Elizabeth Imholtz, Consumers Union of U.S. Inc.

"We are the richest country that's ever lived
and we're the only developed country that does not provide universal access to health care, even though we pay more per capita for it than any other country."
Linda Rosenstock, M.D., Dean, UCLA School of Public Health

"If you think the system is about keeping you healthy, you might want to consider a brain scan."
Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times, 12/1/02

I believe it to be the moral duty of all who have a public forum to harangue our lawmakers. A never-ending barrage should be used to make them realize there must be a national health program."
Robert S. Ellison, M.D., in the L. A. Times

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