Resolution of U.S. Mayors

The U.S. Conference of Mayors called for the immediate enactment of The United States National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 676)

RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE ACT (H.R. 676)

• WHEREAS,
  • every person deserves access to affordable quality health care
  • the number of Americans without health insurance now exceeds 47 million
  • millions with insurance have coverage so inadequate that a major illness would lead to financial ruin, and medical illness and bills contribute to one-half of all bankruptcies
  • proposals for “consumer directed health care” would worsen this situation by penalizing the sick, discouraging prevention and saddling many working families with huge medical bills
  • managed care and other market-based reforms have failed to contain health care costs, which now threaten the international competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers
  • administrative waste stemming from our reliance on private insurers consumes one-third of private health spending while the single payer Medicare system has administrative costs of less than 5%
  • U.S. hospitals spend 24.3% of their budgets on billing and administration while hospitals under Canada’s single payer system spend only 12.9%
  • Harvard researchers estimate that more than $300 billion could be recovered by replacing private insurance companies with a single public payer, enough to cover the uninsured and to improve coverage for all those who now have only partial coverage
  • entrusting care to profit-oriented firms diverts billions of dollars to outrageous incomes for CEOs and threatens the quality of care
  • The United States National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 676) would assure universal coverage of all medically necessary services, contain costs by slashing bureaucracy, protect the doctor patient relationship, assure patients a completely free choice of doctors, and allow physicians a free choice of practice settings
  • most polls show that the majority of Americans support universal healthcare
  • as of the date of this resolution, the majority of American physicians (59%) believe that (single-payer) is the best method of securing universal healthcare; and WHEREAS, The United States National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 676) will guarantee every mayor that all residents and employees of his/her city will be fully covered for healthcare and save millions of taxpayer dollars now spent on premiums to provide less than full health insurance coverage for government employees

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the United States Conference of Mayors expresses its support for The United States National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 676), and calls upon federal legislators to work towards its immediate enactment, and further urges the adoption of a process by which healthcare (providers) will be required to justify any increases to healthcare costs.

– Bulleting and bolding was added.

Sources

See the Resolution (pdf) in Support of the National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 676) adopted at the 76th Annual Meeting of June 20-24, 2008.