By Elizabeth R. Rosenthal, M.D.

The Journal News (Westchester, N.Y.), July 25, 2013

The 48th birthday of Medicare on Tuesday reminds us that the birth of the Affordable Care Act has not and will not fix our broken health-care system.

Health care is simply unaffordable for too many of us. In October, the last phase of the reform act known as “Obamacare” will begin with the opening of the health-care exchanges (now known as “the marketplace”). Here many more people will be able to buy more affordable health insurance.

However, by continuing to rely on our for-profit, market-based system, we are wasting billions of dollars on inflated administrative costs. These dollars should instead be going to pay for actual health care.

We need to follow Medicare’s lead — with greatly reduced administrative costs — and treat health care as a social need instead of as a commodity, as an opportunity for profit-making.

Original Medicare, born July 30, 1965, brought affordable health care to the elderly, lifting most of them out of poverty. It has been working well for 48 years and is one of the most popular government programs. In recent years, efforts have been made to privatize it: The Part D drug program and the Medicare Advantage plans are both private. This has led to higher costs.

Although original Medicare’s costs are rising, they are rising more slowly than overall health-care costs. Lowering the costs to government by shifting more of the costs onto patients (e.g., through higher deductibles) does nothing to lower the total health-care expenditure. Even with the arrival of the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchange, 2,000 New Yorkers will die each year for lack of health care.

We can do better. New York can adopt a publicly funded, privately delivered single-payer plan for all New Yorkers. We can pass the New York Health Bill (A5389/S2078) that provides such a plan. This will save New York billions of dollars and lift the burden from municipalities and companies of providing health care for their workers.

New York could show the nation that access to health care should not depend on one’s ability to pay. By doing so, we would also boost support for national legislation, the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, H.R. 676, which would assure that every resident of the United States has access to high-quality care.

It is immoral to leave so many to suffer and die due to lack of health care. We can, with an improved and expanded Medicare for all, bring health justice to all.

Dr. Elizabeth Rosenthal lives in Larchmont.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20130725/OPINION/307250059/Community-View-Treat-health-care-social-need-not-commodity?nclick_check=1