Now is the time to build a movement in support of single payer, a health care system that would provide care to all while drastically cutting health expenditures and eliminating medical bankruptcies. With the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act being deliberated, there is ample opportunity for single-payer supporters to present their case for this healthcare system.  At present, there is a New York State single-payer bill, and if single-payer and Occupy activists can coalesce around this issue, great progress can be made.

“I have put my life on hold. I’ve depleted my entire savings account, pretty much,” Heather Bixler, the mother of a chronically ill child said. Her son, Sean, has seizures due to an accident. Heather estimates that between 30% to 50% of the family income goes toward care for Sean. A survey confirmed that people who have a serious medical condition or who’ve been in the hospital in the past year tended to have more concerns about costs and quality than people who aren’t sick. And notably, 3 of 4 people who were sick said cost is a very serious problem, and half said quality is a very serious problem.

Last week, the Massachusetts Senate voted not to study the potential cost-cutting effects of a single-payer healthcare system. The study–which would have required a year-by-year comparison between single payer and the existing system–was proposed as an amendment to a bill that would cut healthcare spending in the state. Despite its defeat, however, the proposed amendment led to a spirited discussion of the benefits of single payer. The movement for a single-payer system in Massachusetts continues.

The uninsured patient spends an inordinate amount of time waiting to receive care in emergency rooms, sometimes for acute problems that could have been preventable if he or she had access to continuous care. It’s time we stand for single-payer, a system that treats every person fairly in their quest to receive healthcare services.

Health insurers will gain $1 trillion in new revenue over the next eight years under the 2010 health-care law, assuming it’s upheld by the Supreme Court, according to a Bloomberg Government study. The money comes from U.S. subsidies to people purchasing insurance beginning in 2014 and an expansion of Medicaid.

Last week, Senator Thomas Duane and Assembly member Richard Gottfried introduced their bill that would create a universal, single-payer healthcare system in New York. The bill is an updated version of one introduced by Gottfried in the early 90s. If it passes, New York would become the second state, following Vermont, to pass such legislation. Several other states are moving toward single payer, and California’s legislature came within two votes of passing such a bill earlier this year. Onward!

A growing number of Americans are finding their credit destroyed due to medical debt. In many cases the size of the debt is small and the debtor is simply unaware of it existence until contacted by a collection agency. Due to the many issues that can arise during the billing process –incorrect billing; improper processing of the bill by the insurance company; delayed payment from insurance company resulting in the hospital billing the patient; multiple bills resulting from one office visit–a patient can easily become liable for a payment he or she thought was already covered.

Doctors, Nurses, Patients Advocates (of course including members from HCN!-NYC) joined Assembly member Richard Gottfried, Senator Thomas Duane and 70 lawmakers in unveiling an updated and revised single-payer legislative proposal for New York State. A state study says that single payer would reduce overall health care expenditures in New York by $20 billion annually by 2019. And people would not need to choose between getting less income to qualify for Medicaid and going without insurance since it is unaffordable.

Americans with private health insurance are increasingly postponing needed care or foregoing it altogether because of rising out-of-pocket costs. At the same time, public programs are failing to keep up with the needs of the uninsured and those living in poverty. Even if it withstands its Supreme Court challenge, the Affordable Care Act will not be sufficient to address these gaps in care.

Debt collection agencies have become more aggressive in their pursuit of medical debt.  A recent investigation into the practices of Accretive Health, one of largest medical debt collection agencies, reveals that agency workers were given front-line staffing positions, such as registering patients, and did not distinguish themselves from hospital employees. They then attempted to collect delinquent payments from patients or dissuaded them seeking care if they could not pay. The debt collectors stalled patients in emergency rooms and placed patients on “stop lists” if they were delinquent on payments.