Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced a bill Wednesday that would create a federal single-payer healthcare system.
The bill is designed to save $400 billion on bureaucracy, providing enough funding to cover the nation's 46 million uninsured.
Sanders' introduction of the American Health Security Act of 2009 comes as Congress begins laying groundwork on a comprehensive healthcare package aimed to avoid a single-payer healthcare system.
Key Congressional leaders in the push for healthcare reform, including Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), along with President Barack Obama, plan to promote a public-private healthcare system, with options for Americans to keep their current health plan or choose to participate in a national healthcare exchange similar to the current federal employee health insurance program.
Physicians for a National Health Program, a membership organization of more than 16,000 physicians, has been pushing for a single-payer national health insurance program. The group says 59 percent of U.S. physicians support a single-payer system.
Quentin Young, the organization's national coordinator and a past president of the American Public Health Association, said the bill is good news for the nation's health. "There is now an affordable cure for our dysfunctional healthcare system," he said. "In the face of our present economic calamity, this is an urgent necessity."
The bill would allow patients to go to any doctor or hospital of their choice. The program would be funded by combining current sources of government health spending into a single fund with modest new taxes – reportedly amounting to less than what people now pay for insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses.
Comprehensive benefits would include coverage for dental, mental health and prescription drugs. While federally funded, the program would be administered by the states.
To address the critical shortage of primary care physicians and dentists, the bill would provide resources for the National Health Service Corps to train an additional 24,000 health professionals.
"We are confident that Senator Sanders' bill will accelerate the national drive for the only reform that we know will work," Young said. "A majority of physicians endorse such an approach. Two-thirds of the public also supports such a remedy. We remember well that President Obama once acknowledged that single-payer national health insurance was the best way to go. It still is."
Research recently released by the California-based Consumer Watchdog group has raised concerns about lawmakers' interests. Consumer Watchdog said health insurers and their employees donated $2.2 million and drug companies and their employees gave more than $3.3 million to support Congressional candidates since 2005. Baucus came in near the top of highest paid recipients, with $413,000.