Formation | 1987 |
---|---|
Type | Professional association |
04-2937697 | |
Legal status | 501(c)(3) |
Purpose | "Advocates for universal, comprehensive single-payer national health insurance, and collaborates with others to fight racism and advance social justice." |
Headquarters | 29 E. Madison St., Ste. 1412, Chicago, Illinois 60602, U.S. |
Region served | United States |
Membership | 22,000 as of 2022 [1] |
President | Philip Verhoef, MD, PhD, FAAP, FACP [2] |
Revenue (2021) | $955,758 [3] |
Website | pnhp |
Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) is an advocacy organization of more than 20,000 American physicians, medical students, and health professionals that supports a universal, comprehensive single-payer national health insurance program. Since being co-founded in 1987 by physicians David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler, PNHP has advocated for reform in the U.S. health care system.
PNHP is the only national physician organization in the United States dedicated exclusively to implementing a single-payer national health program. The organization and its members work to educate physicians and other health professionals about the benefits of a single-payer system, including fewer administrative costs and affording health insurance for the millions of Americans who have none. Additionally, PNHP performs research on the health crisis and the need for fundamental reform, coordinates speakers and forums, participates in town hall meetings and debates, contributes scholarly articles to peer-reviewed medical journals, and appears regularly on national television and news programs advocating for a single-payer system. [4]
The group is best known for its influential proposals for national health insurance, which have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine , [5] JAMA , [6] and the American Journal of Public Health . [7]
The group is also known for its members' substantial contributions to scientific research on the uninsured, health system economics and international health systems. Members such as David Himmelstein, Steffie Woolhandler, Marcia Angell and Arnold Relman have contributed articles to major peer-reviewed journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine (of which Angell and Relman are former editors-in-chief), JAMA, Health Affairs , and The American Journal of Medicine . [8] Quentin Young was president of the organization from 1991 to 1993. [9]
Publicly funded healthcare is a form of health care financing designed to meet the cost of all or most healthcare needs from a publicly managed fund. Usually this is under some form of democratic accountability, the right of access to which are set down in rules applying to the whole population contributing to the fund or receiving benefits from it.
Universal health care is a health care system in which all residents of a particular country or region are assured access to health care. It is generally organized around providing either all residents or only those who cannot afford on their own, with either health services or the means to acquire them, with the end goal of improving health outcomes.
A comparison of the healthcare systems in Canada and the United States is often made by government, public health and public policy analysts. The two countries had similar healthcare systems before Canada changed its system in the 1960s and 1970s. The United States spends much more money on healthcare than Canada, on both a per-capita basis and as a percentage of GDP. In 2006, per-capita spending for health care in Canada was US$3,678; in the U.S., US$6,714. The U.S. spent 15.3% of GDP on healthcare in that year; Canada spent 10.0%. In 2006, 70% of healthcare spending in Canada was financed by government, versus 46% in the United States. Total government spending per capita in the U.S. on healthcare was 23% higher than Canadian government spending. U.S. government expenditure on healthcare was just under 83% of total Canadian spending.
Single-payer healthcare is a type of universal healthcare in which the costs of essential healthcare for all residents are covered by a single public system.
Medical debt refers to debt incurred by individuals due to health care costs and related expenses.
Fee-for-service (FFS) is a payment model where services are unbundled and paid for separately.
The Medicare for All Act, also known as the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act or United States National Health Care Act, is a bill first introduced in the United States House of Representatives by Representative John Conyers (D-MI) in 2003, with 38 co-sponsors. In 2019, the original 16-year-old proposal was renumbered, and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) introduced a broadly similar, but more detailed, bill, HR 1384, in the 116th Congress. As of November 3, 2019, it had 116 co-sponsors still in the House at the time, or 49.8% of House Democrats.
Arnold Seymour Relman — known as Bud Relman to intimates — was an American internist and professor of medicine and social medicine. He was editor of The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) from 1977 to 1991, where he instituted two important policies: one asking the popular press not to report on articles before publication and another requiring authors to disclose conflicts of interest. He wrote extensively on medical publishing and reform of the U.S. health care system, advocating non-profit delivery of single-payer health care. Relman ended his career as professor emeritus at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.
Healthcare reform in the United States has a long history. Reforms have often been proposed but have rarely been accomplished. In 2010, landmark reform was passed through two federal statutes: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), signed March 23, 2010, and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which amended the PPACA and became law on March 30, 2010.
The healthcare reform debate in the United States has been a political issue focusing upon increasing medical coverage, decreasing costs, insurance reform, and the philosophy of its provision, funding, and government involvement.
David Scheiner is an American physician and activist, noted for his efforts in advocating for single-payer health care in the United States. He was United States President Barack Obama's personal physician from 1987 till 2008 while he was based in Chicago, and is a leading member of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP).
The Alberta Health Insurance Act was an act passed by the Alberta Legislature in February 1935. It was the first Canadian health insurance act to provide some public funding for medical services, and as such is considered to be an early step toward the provision of medicare in Canada.
There were a number of different health care reforms proposed during the Obama administration. Key reforms address cost and coverage and include obesity, prevention and treatment of chronic conditions, defensive medicine or tort reform, incentives that reward more care instead of better care, redundant payment systems, tax policy, rationing, a shortage of doctors and nurses, intervention vs. hospice, fraud, and use of imaging technology, among others.
Healthcare in the United States is largely provided by private sector healthcare facilities, and paid for by a combination of public programs, private insurance, and out-of-pocket payments. The U.S. is the only developed country without a system of universal healthcare, and a significant proportion of its population lacks health insurance.
Unnecessary health care is health care provided with a higher volume or cost than is appropriate. In the United States, where health care costs are the highest as a percentage of GDP, overuse was the predominant factor in its expense, accounting for about a third of its health care spending in 2012.
David A. Ansell is a Chicago-based physician, social epidemiologist and author. His efforts at both the national and local levels have advanced concerns about health inequities and the structure of the US health care system. His years as a provider to the medically underserved have made him a vocal supporter of single-payer health care. He spent seventeen years at Cook County Hospital currently known as John H. Stroger Hospital of Cook County upon which the medical T.V. drama ER was based. Ansell was inspired by his time at Cook County Hospital to write a memoir and social history entitled, County: Life, Death, and Politics in Chicago’s Public Hospital. County was hailed as a "landmark book" by Julia Keller of the Chicago Tribune, aiming "to inform and to inspire" readers about the disparities in health care. In the book, Ansell argues that only a single-payer solution that provides access to all US residents regardless of circumstances can provide relief for those closed out of the health care system.
This article summarizes healthcare in California.
Stephanie Joan "Steffie" Woolhandler is an American primary care physician and medical researcher. An advocate for single-payer health insurance in the United States, she is a co-founder and board member of Physicians for a National Health Program. She is Distinguished Professor of Public Health and Health Policy at the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College and an adjunct clinical professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is also a lecturer in medicine at Harvard Medical School, where she formerly co-directed the general internal medicine internship program.
David U. Himmelstein is an American academic physician specializing in internal medicine. He is a distinguished professor of public health and health policy in the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College, an adjunct clinical professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and a lecturer at Harvard Medical School. He is the co-founder with Steffie Woolhandler of Physicians for a National Health Program, an organization advocating for single-payer healthcare in the United States.
Asa Cristina Laurell is a Mexican sociologist who has had a long career in both research and government positions. She grew up in Sweden, but her education eventually brought her to Mexico. In Mexico, she was awarded two degrees and conducted research that focused on health policy, including ensuring access to health care for people in Mexico and various other Latin American countries. She is known for her role in helping to found the Latin American Association of Social Medicine (ALAMES), as well as the contributions she has made to widening access to health care for Mexicans during her time in government. This included serving as Undersecretary of Integration and Development at the Ministry of Health in Mexico.