However, France utilizes more market-based ideas than most people realized. Copayment rates for most services are 10 to 40 percent. About 92 percent of French residents have complementary private health insurance.

About 99 percent of French residents are covered by the national health insurance scheme

United Kingdom — Percentage of gross domestic product spent on health care: 8.3. There is no average family premium, it is funded by taxation. Copayments: None for most services; some co-pays for dental care, eyeglasses and 5 percent of prescriptions. Young people and the elderly are exempt from all drug co-pays. What is it? The British system is “socialized medicine” because the government both provides and pays for health care. Britons pay taxes for health care, and the government-run National Health Service distributes those funds to health care providers. Hospital doctors are paid salaries. General practitioners who run private practices, are paid based on the number of patients they see. A small number of specialists work outside the NHS and see private-pay patients.

Because the system is funded through taxes, administrative costs are low; there are no bills to collect or claims to review. Patients have a “medical home” in their GP, who also serves as a gatekeeper to the rest of the system; patients must see their GP before going to a specialist. GPs, which are paid extra for keeping their patients healthy, are instrumental in preventive care, an area in which Britain is a world leader.

Japan —Percentage of GDP spent on health care: 8 percent. Average family premium: $280 per month, with employers paying more than half. Co-payments: 30 percent of the cost of a procedure, but the total amount paid in a month is capped according to income.

Japan uses a “social insurance” system in which all citizens are required to have health insurance, either through their work or purchased from a nonprofit, community-based plan. Those who can’t afford the premiums receive public assistance. Most health insurance is private; doctors and almost all hospitals are in the private sector. Japan boasts some of the best health statistics in the world, no doubt due in part to the Japanese diet and lifestyle. Unlike the U.K., there are no gatekeepers; the Japanese can go to any specialist when and as often as they like. Every two years the Ministry of Health negotiates with physicians to set the price for every procedure. This helps keeps costs down.

Germany — Percentage of GDP spent on health care: 10.7. Average family premium: $750 per month; premiums are pegged to patients’ income. Co-payments: 10 euros ($15) every three months; some patients, like pregnant women, are exempt.

Germany, like Japan, uses a social insurance model. In fact, Germany is the birthplace of social insurance, which dates back to Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. But unlike the Japanese, who get insurance from work or are assigned to a community fund, Germans are free to buy their insurance from one of more than 200 private, nonprofit “sickness funds.” As in Japan, the poor receive public assistance to pay their premiums.

Sickness funds are nonprofit and cannot deny coverage based on preexisting conditions; they compete with each other for members, and fund managers are paid based on the size of their enrollments. Like Japan, Germany is a single-payment system, but instead of the government negotiating the prices, the sickness funds bargain with doctors as a group. Germans can go straight to a specialist without first seeing a gatekeeper doctor, but they may pay higher co-pay if they do.

Taiwan — Percentage GDP spent on health care: 6.3. Average family premium: $650 per year for a family for four. Co-payments: 20 percent of the cost of drugs, up to $6.50; up to $7 for outpatient care; $1.80 for dental and traditional Chinese medicine. There are exemptions for major diseases, childbirth, preventive services, and for the poor, veterans and children.

Taiwan adopted a “National Health Insurance” model in 1995 after studying other countries’ systems. Like Japan and Germany, all citizens must have insurance, but there is only one, government-run insurer. Working people pay premiums split with their employers; others pay flat rates with government help; and some groups, like the poor and veterans, are fully subsidized. The resulting system is similar to Canada’s — and the U.S. Medicare program.

Taiwan’s new health system extended insurance to the 40 percent of the population that lacked it while actually decreasing the growth of health care spending. The Taiwanese can see any doctor without a referral. Every citizen has a smart card, which is used to store his or her medical history and bill the national insurer. The system also helps public health officials monitor standards and effect policy changes nationwide. Thanks to this use of technology and the country’s single insurer, Taiwan’s health care system has the lowest administrative costs in the world.

The detailed comparisons for all countries are available. Several facts stand out.

They supply health care to all their citizens. Their cost as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product is much lower than our 15.3 percent. They do not have 50 million uninsured and probably another 20 million underinsured. This is what we report in our USA. We are not comparable to the best in life expectancy, infant mortality and several key quality measurements.

We need to stop arguing and find a sensible affordable way to provide health care to all legalized Americans. This is my opinion. How about yours?

There is a bill in congress that can give Americans real health care reform.  However, congress and the mainstream media won’t even mention the grass roots movement all across this country for single payer public option plan to  Americans, even though it would squeeze the greed out of the medical health care coverage industry, and save tax payers billions of dollars in health care reform.  Congress needs to understand that the American citizens are ready to remove excessive profits from the health care industry.

Our United States federal congressional representatives; US House representatives; and US Senators  need to know that the people in their community want real health care reform, not an insurance industry giveaway.

There are two public options circulating in congress right now; the public insurance option HR3200; and the single payer public plan HR676.  The public insurance option does not remove the medical insurance industry from the public medical insurance plan.  On the other hand, the single payer public option will deal directly with the medical providers for the public plan eliminating the medical insurance industry from the public option, which would save tax payers billions.  The single payer public health coverage plan would be able to co/exist with the medical insurance industry since not all Americans would opt for the public medical health coverage.  Single payer public health insurance coverage would be another choice for medical insurance coverage for Americans.  The medical insurance industry would be forced to lower cost to their clients; if keeping their clients content is important to their business.

The medical insurance industry has bombarded the mainstream media and congress with $1.7 million dollars a day in the month of August to sway public opinion against single payer public plan.  The medical insurance industry does not want HR676 to be included in the health care reform bill as the public option.  The reality is the medical insurance industry does not want the government to purchase health care policies directly from health care providers and health care hospitals for the citizens who would be interested in the public plan.  The medical insurance industry is in the business of making profit on the health care industry; the medical insurance industry has a monopoly on the medical insurance health coverage in is this country.

The House of Representatives will be holding a historic first vote on single payer public plan, HR 676. This bill, with 85 co-sponsors, would be expanded and improved Medicare-For-All providing health care to all Americans and allowing us free choice of doctors, hospitals and other health services which remain private.  It removes the private health insurance from the public plan; middlemen from decisions that should be made by doctors and patients.

A single payer Medicare-For-All public plan system could eliminate 500,000 insurance industry jobs, since those Americans who would choose the public medical insurance coverage plan would get their medical coverage directly from the government.  However,  3.2 million new jobs in health care for a net gain of 2.6 million new jobs according to a study by the Institute for Health and Socio-Economic Policy. That´s as many jobs as the U.S. economy lost in all of 2007.  Single payer will create hundreds of billions in annual wages and local and state tax revenues for cash strapped cities and towns.

According to the National Academy of Sciences 18,000 Americans die each year because of lack of access to health care. Medical problems contributed to nearly two-thirds (62.1 percent) of all bankruptcies, according to a study in the August 2009 issue of the American Journal of Medicine. More than three-quarters (77.9 percent) of those people had health insurance.

HR 3200, the Democratic leadership bill, will cost approximately $1 trillion over ten years, while HR676 single payer will save $4 trillion over a decade by cutting the bureaucracy and expense of the complicated for-profit private health insurance system.

President Obama was right when he said that the only way to cover everyone is a single payer system. The employment-based health insurance approach is no longer working with hundreds of thousands of Americans losing their jobs and Americans rapidly changing careers.

Single payer is a system where everybody is in and nobody is out. It will allow Americans to easily change jobs and make it more affordable for employers to hire new people without the fear of the unpredictable cost of health insurance.

Please let your United States federal congressional representatives know that you support HR676 single payer public insurance plan for the public option plan;  instead of HR3200 public insurance option for public option plan; since it would be a better financial choice for American tax payers.

HR676 Amendment a state’s application for a waiver from ERISA is granted automatically if the state has signed into law a single payer plan. With the amendment, for the first time, the state single payer health care option is shielded from an ERISA-based legal attack. Now that the underlying bill has been passed, as amended, by the full committee, we must make sure that Congress knows that we want the provision kept in the bill at final passage!!!!!

The state single payer option was one of five major amendments which Kucinich obtained support to get included in HR3200.  One amendment brings into standard coverage for the first time complementary and alternative medicine, (integrative medicine).  Another amendment drives down the cost of prescription drugs by ending pharmaceutical industry’s sharp practices manipulating physician prescribing habits. An amendment stops the insurance industry from increasing premiums at the time when people are not permitted to change health plans; and finally an amendment imposing a requirement on insurance companies that they disclose the cost of advertising, marketing and executive compensation expenses (which generally divert money from patient care).

So we can build full momentum behind this movement for real health care.  Please get involved and tell Congress you Support HR676 single payer public plan to be the public plan for health care reform bill.  Right now the final bill HR3200 gives states the choice between the public option or public plan for health care.  Think about this!

Two Public Plans

1. Public Insurance Option–Public Plan- This idea was designed by the medical insurance industry; medical  pharmaceutical industry; and the medical providers industry influence over congress and the media.  Remember for the month of August 2009 $1.7 million dollars a day will be spent by thees industries to sway congress and public opinion against the other public plan -Single payer.

2. Single Payer Public Option–Public Plan- This idea was created by nonprofit health care providers.  This plan allows states to move forward with their nonprofit legislation for health care.

The President wants to know if the American people support HR676 single payer public plan to be included in the health care reform bill.

HR676 single payer public plan was introduced to congress in 1945.  Single payer public plan is a progressive financial idea that allows the public plan to directly purchase health care services from health care providers.  The medical industry and Congress have stopped single payer public plan for 64 years.

The propaganda bombarding media supported by these industries Claims Government Run Health Care is a  Bad Idea!   The government does know how to run health care the Veteran’s Administration has a good record for health care.  Even for Medicare individuals health care sevices are provided, but still the billing has to go through the medical insurance industry.

The American people have never been so close to a single payer public plan.  There has never been ‘single payer’ public option in America.

What about MASSACHUSETTS you say they have public health care.  No there needs to be an amendment to the tax law that mandates a single payer state will receive the right to waive the application of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

Massachusetts has a public insurance option something like HR3200 and NOT a single payer public plan like HR676.

Let me say that again: It is the medical insurance industry;  that is against single payer public plan.   This industry is spending $ millions to sway congress and public opinion against the single payer public plan.

If we don’t stand up RIGHT NOW! and let it be known that we support HR676 single payer public plan to be the public plan for the health care reform;  then the only health care reform bill  that passes congress will be the public opinion for health care reform.

We all must tell Congress we support single payer HR676 for health care reform; or we will get a health care reform bill designed by industries governed by Darwin economics.   Honestly should profit motivated industries control every aspect of  health care in  America.

I as American would like to get, the best deal I can get for my money for  health care coverage.  Last year my husband and I spent $20,000 for health care coverage.  It would be awesome to buy health care coverage directly from health care providers.  However, through our employers this is the price we must pay to get good health care  coverage.

This why the Democrat Party wants to hear from all Americans that support single payer public plan HR676 to be included in the health care reform bill.

HR3200 is a public insurance plan designed by the medical industry; and the medical insurance industry; and the  pharmaceutical industry HR3200 bill will pass they have the vote.

I am praying that millions and millions and millions of Americans tell congress that they support HR676 single payer public plan to be included in the health care reform bill.

Single payer public plan is the only public plan that will truly reduce costs for the American tax payers.  The federal government would pay medical providers the pay rate that is agreed upon.  I am sure doctors of the VA are not forced to work for the VA at a pay rate that is undesirable.

Please tell everyone you know to get involved and tell congress that the American people support CHIOCE in our health care plan. That only single payer health care reform VA for all can achieve this goal.

Imagine single payer national health care could realize about $400 billion in savings annually-enough to cover the uninsured and to upgrade coverage for all Americans.  But the vast majority of these savings are not available unless single payer is the public plan for health care coverage.  A single payer public plan might cut into private insurers’ profits.  That’s exactly why these industries hate single payer public plan.  But their profits– roughly $10 billion annually–are dwarfed by the money they waste in search of profit.  These industries spend vast sums for marketing (to attract the healthy);  demarketing (to avoid the sick);  billing their ever shifting roster of enrollees;  fight with providers over bills; and lobbying politicans.  And doctors and hospitals spend billions more meeting isures demands for documentation.  A single-player public plan would eliminate most insurance overhead, as well as these other paperwork expenses.  Hospitals in the single payer public plan could be paid like a fire department receiving a single monthly check for their entire budget.  Physicians who choose to work with the single payer public plan their biling could be similarly simplified.

With a public insurance option, by contrast, hospitals and doctors would still need elaborate billing and cost-tracking systems. And overhead for even the most efficient competitive public option would be far higher than for traditional Medicare, which is efficient precisely because it doesn’t compete. It automatically enrolls seniors at 65 and deducts their premiums through the social security system, contracts with any willing provider, and does no marketing.

Health insurers compete by NOT paying for care: by seeking out the healthy and avoiding the sick; by denying payment and shifting costs onto patients; and by lobbying for unfair public subsidies (as under the Medicare HMO program).  A kinder, gentler public plan that failed to emulate these behaviors would soon be saddled with the sickest, costliest patients and the highest payouts, driving premiums to uncompetitive levels.  To compete successfully, a public plan would have to copy private plans.

Decades of experience teach that private insurers cannot control costs or provide families with the coverage they need.   And a government-run clone of private insurers cannot fix these flaws either.

America need health care reform and there will be a public plan which public plan do you support?