Single-payer health care gains traction, local physician advocates

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When Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan., introduced a bill in Congress in 2015 that would create a single-payer health care system, he picked up 49 co-sponsors.

In September, he had 120 co-sponsors when he introduced the bill again, reflecting the gains the idea has made locally and nationally for a privately delivered, publicly financed universal health care system that limits the role of health insurers.

“Everybody’s in. Nobody is out. No such thing as separate networks,” said Ana Malinow, a Shadyside pediatrician who has treated many children who didn’t have health insurance. “The way we get there is a single-payer health care system.”

Dr. Malinow, who served as president of the Chicago-based Physicians for a National Health Program in 2007, recently revitalized the Pittsburgh chapter of the organization, which has about two dozen physician members from the region.

…Over the years, a lack of health insurance has caused easily treated medical problems to instead reach a crisis, Dr. Malinow said.

She remembered two patients from her years working at Ben Taub Hospital in Houston, Texas. In one case, an infection spread up a child’s arm, requiring intravenous antibiotics because the parents couldn’t afford a prescription medication. Another child wound up in the intensive care unit for treatment of asthma because the parents couldn’t afford a prescription inhaler.

…Still, single-payer health care bills have been historically difficult to pass. Limiting the role of insurance carriers in the health care equation likely would encounter resistance, said Martin Gaynor, professor of economics and health policy at Carnegie Mellon University.

…In 33 years of practicing medicine, pediatrician Scott Tyson said he has seen health insurance companies take a bigger role in medical decisions, which has not always benefited patients.

“The insurance industry has taken more and more of the power away from patients and providers,” said Dr. Tyson, who has offices in Mt. Lebanon, Peters and Robinson. “Getting the insurance industry out of the picture is the only way to control costs and give health care back to patients and providers.”

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Amanda Zhou, azhou@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1130 or Twitter: @amondozhou. Kris B. Mamula, kmamula@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1699