To the extent that people with progressives inclinations are focused on the health insurance issue in Pennsylvania—and, right now, too many of us are not focused enough on it—they find themselves torn between two different plans. One is Governor Rendell’s Prescription for Pennsylvania (RxPA). The other is a single payer plan, put forward by the Health Care for All coalition.
It is a strange debate. For one thing, most of us, on both sides of the debate, would like to ultimately move to some kind of single payer system with the costs of health care provided by progressive taxation, not by employer sponsored plans paid for by employers and employees. We differ only about whether it makes sense to push for a single payer system in Pennsylvania right now.
It is strange, also, in that the proponents of single payer seem to be focusing more on denouncing those who support Rx for PA than they are on denouncing those who oppose both RxPA and Health Care for All—insurance companies, drug companies and many lobbyists for businesses big and small. Some of them portray RxPA, and those who support it, in misleading ways.
I’ve presented the basic elements of RxPA in this post.
In my next post I’m going to try to set out some of the reasons why single payer health insurance is not likely to go anywhere politically in Pennsylvania this year, why instituting single payer in Pennsylvania actually has some serious problems, and thus why we should work for RxPA this year. In subsequent posts I’m going toshow why support for RxPA puts us on a political and policy path towards single payer either in Pennsylvania or in the nation; and address some of the misinformation supporters of single payer are giving about RxPA.