Taking place in the
Somerville Library, a modest crowd of about 25 gathered to hear what
Dr. Nardin had to say about the current state of the United States
Healthcare system and how a Single Payer Health Plan may be a feasible
solution to the mounting healthcare costs affecting millions of
Americans every day.

"This is an issue I feel passionate about,"
explained Dr. Nardin. "From the 1970s to the present, the number of
uninsured Americans has been rising steadily. But in my opinion, a
bigger problem is the underinsured."

The underinsured include people who have insurance that does not sufficiently cover the healthcare and costs they require.

According
to Nardin, as of 2007 42% of adults ages 19 – 64 are uninsured or
underinsured. That is equivalent to the population of the 12 largest
states in the U.S.A. combined.

Nardin, using a Powerpoint
presentation filled with graphs and startling statistics went on to
explain that approximately 18,000 adult deaths per year are the direct
result of not being insured. In addition, the United States
consistently has had the lowest life expectancy and highest infant
mortality rate of any industrialized nation over the past decade.

"We
rely on a multiplicity of private insurance companies and this requires
a huge amount of administrative costs," Nardin explained. "We have to
have an army of people at the insurance companies and an army of people
in the hospitals dealing with denials and seeking payments. What we
spend on administrators is far and away more than any other country."

By
some estimates, up to 40% of costs in the healthcare industry are
administrative. Nardin thinks this is frivolous. "There are huge
amounts of money that, I would say, is being wasted on this army of
administrators."

In a Single Payer system, a plan that Nardin
promotes, the "multiplicity" of insurance companies and the plenitude
of administrators are replaced by a Government agency that essentially
becomes the paying mechanism for healthcare costs. It would
theoretically be funded by slight employee and company tax hikes in
addition to current healthcare taxes. The money would then flow into a
Government trust fund that would pay for universal healthcare coverage.

This
system, while similar to the socialist healthcare systems in place in
Canada and England, has one fundamental difference – the hospitals and
doctors would not be government employees. "The payment mechanism is
the only thing that is socialized; not the hospitals or doctors." Said
Nardin.

"With a national system, like with a Single Payer plan,
you can do what you do when you have a system – logical planning. What
we have now is a fragmented system; there's no cost control, no
rationing of resources."

Concerning Barack Obama's proposed
healthcare reform, Nardin said, "It is reform I would call incremental.
It would leave the current system that is bankrupting us in place."

Obama's
plan for healthcare reform would mandate that everyone be insured.
There is also much talk and debate over a 'Public Plan' that would
essentially be a default insurance for anyone who couldn't afford any
other plan. In this scenario, private insurance companies could
continue to compete freely, but some fear too many people would choose
to use the free public plan, driving insurance companies under.

To
Nardin, this reform is incremental in that it does not directly address
the issue of the underinsured. With competitive insurance companies in
place, there will always be the market incentive to deny coverage for
certain people and illnesses to avoid losses; someone will always be
underinsured. With Obama's reform plan, Nardin believes "We are
treating the symptom – the uninsured – but we are ignoring the disease"
which is the system itself.

When the meeting was open to
community discussion an air of deep concern verging on discouragement
permeated the room. The enormity of the problems in the American
healthcare system seemed to be weighing down upon the audience.

"I feel discouraged because there seems to be huge, monumental power
with people who don't want any of this," stated one woman. "I just
don't see how we can get anything done. We're just not going to get
there."

In response to this, someone in the audience took it
upon themselves to quote the immortal Winston Churchill. "Americans can
always be counted on to do the right thing…after they've exhausted
every other option."

This seemed to lighten the mood. Nardin
then said, "Don't get too discouraged. We're not taking to the streets
yet, it might not happen this year or the next; but if we don't do
something we are heading for a disaster. Change will have to come."