The momentous decision to reject any public option by the Senate Finance Committee today underscores how completely private insurance companies dominate Congressional activity. The author of the bill for the committee, Liz Fowler, is herself a former VP of WellPoint, the nation’s largest private health insurer. This highlights the importance of the single payer, Medicare for All alternative which, above all, eliminates the need for private insurance companies thereby saving the nation over $400 billion annually, enough to cover all 47 million uninsured.
Dr. Quentin Young is National Coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program. Physicians for a National Health Program is a research and educational organization of 17,000 doctors who support single-payer national health insurance.