Local doctor stumps for national health insurance

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

Steven Thorson, a family practice doctor in Fort Collins, prefers to look at America's health care financing system from a business point of view.

A physician with 32 years of experience, Thorson describes himself as a Republican and a conservative. He sees the present system of multiple private insurance companies as "enormously wasteful of financial and human resources" and harmful not only to individuals who are uninsured but to the economy of the nation.

Thorson arrived at a turning point in 2003, and he now favors a national, single-payer health insurance system as the only viable alternative for the country.

"I've come 180 degrees," he said, adding that if anyone had told him 10 years ago he would be pushing for single-payer health insurance, he would have laughed. Thorson is now an active member of a national organization, Physicians for a National Health Plan, as well as a state group, Health Care for All Colorado. A northern Colorado chapter of HCAC recently formed.

Both groups are pushing for a national health insurance plan that would provide health care for all through a single-payer system. Under such a system, one federal agency would pay health care providers for the care they deliver. Providers would not be government employees, but they would have to negotiate pay schedules with the single payer. One example of a single-payer approach is the Canadian system, but there are many variations.

Thorson tries to appeal to people's business sense when arguing for a change to single-payer. He has spoken to numerous professional and service organizations in Larimer County about problems he sees in the current health insurance system in America.

"What we're doing makes no sense, and I felt I had a responsibility to begin to speak out," he said. "I need to do what I can to try to change our system."

Auto industry example

Thorson points to the auto industry in America as a prime example of how the health care system is hurting the economy. Recently, Fort Motor Co. announced layoffs of 25,000 to 30,000 employees, citing rising health care costs as one of the reasons for downsizing. The health care costs for General Motors have been reported at $1,500 per car. By comparison, Thorson said, Toyota spends $186 per car on health care, and he thinks that difference could be part of the reason American car companies are in trouble.

Thorson tells people, "If you put your business hat on, you're getting a really bad buy for the dollars invested" in health insurance. Health care in the United States costs a whopping $6,300 per person per year, he said, totaling $2 trillion for the country or 16 percent of the gross domestic product. Of that, $600 billion per year is spent on what Thorson calls "administrative silliness."

By comparison, the health care cost per person in Canada is half that amount, and everyone is covered by the government's single-payer insurance plan. While Canada's system is often used for comparison, both positive and negative, that country stands with the vast majority in offering single-payer health insurance to its citizens. In fact, the United States is the only industrialized country that does not provide health care for all its residents.

State program feared

Thorson admits there's a common fear of the government running a health insurance program, but he argues that this fear doesn't make sense. In the current American system, he said, 55 percent of insurance premiums or health care expenses are already paid for by some level of government. These plans include Medicare and Medicaid, plus plans for military personnel and other federal, state and local employees. Given that level of government involvement, Thorson asked, "Why do we so much fear single-payer insurance?"

In fact, Thorson views the overall success of the Medicare program as a good argument to provide something similar for all Americans. Administrative costs under Medicare are a mere 5 percent of total costs. By comparison, the administrative costs of the current system are about 30 percent, including paperwork for both insurance companies and health care providers. The greater overhead costs result from duplication of services, marketing costs and the need for most insurance companies to produce a profit for stockholders. The savings realized by a single-payer system, Thorson said, could pay for health care for those currently left out of the system.

More time for patients

Besides economics, Thorson has two other major concerns about the current health care system. As a physician, he wants to spend more time with his patients, and "that time is being parasitized by administrative duties" such as dealing with dozens of different insurance companies. A single-payer plan would dramatically reduce paperwork, Thorson said.

Thorson's third criticism is an ethical one - the fact that the current system leaves 46 million people without health insurance and thus without regular health care. "In the richest nation on earth, I think that's criminal," he said. Also, everyone else pays when uninsured people go to the emergency room for care.

Thorson likes to make an analogy between health care and the protection that communities receive from fire and police departments. Those services, he said, are perceived as basic rights for the community, ways of handling direct threats.

"Why won't we come together to address the health threats to our families?" he asked. "You wouldn't think of signing up for fire department insurance."

The tide is turning in terms of public support of health care for all. Thorson cited a poll by the American Medical Association in which 41 percent of the responding physicians favored national, single-payer insurance. Support by the general public is even wider. A poll conducted by the Civil Society Institute in 2004 showed 67 percent of Americans supporting a system similar to Canada's.

Thorson is doing his best to widen that support. He is part of a small group of physicians who plan to reach out to other health care professionals, trying to add more voices to the cry for better, more efficient health care for all Americans.