This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Medical Practice  • Health Policy  • Quality of Care  • Quality of Care, Other  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

In Reply: Dr Palmisano incorrectly equates our proposed NHI with Canada's. The United States spends 75% more per capita on health care than Canada and 145% more than Britain¹; our higher spending would (and should) persist under NHI. Underfunding in Canada has caused some waits and shortages, which have been exaggerated in the US press.² Nonetheless, levels of satisfaction with the Canadian health care system are similar to those in the United States.^{1, 3} We believe that Canada spends too little on health care, but gets great value for money. While Canadians appropriately criticize their system, they overwhelmingly support it.⁴

Palmisano views the perpetuation of private insurance firms as essential to freedom. We disagree. An NHI program would regulate publicly funded hospital expansion, not prohibit it. His assertion that NHI would amplify intrusive bureaucracy is puzzling; US health maintenance organizations (HMOs) are world champions at hassling physicians.³ The research literature . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Steffie Woolhandler, MD, MPH; David U. Himmelstein, MD; Marcial Angell, MD; Quentin D. Young, MD for the Physicians' Working Group for Single-Payer National Health Insurance

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLES

Comparison of Mortality Between Private For-Profit and Private Not-For-Profit Hemodialysis Centers: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , and
JAMA. ;288():2449-2457.
FULL TEXT  

Proposals for US National Health Insurance

JAMA. ;290():2797-2797.
FULL TEXT  

Proposals for US National Health Insurance

JAMA. ;290():2797-2798.
FULL TEXT  

Proposals for US National Health Insurance

JAMA. ;290():2798-2798.
FULL TEXT  

Proposals for US National Health Insurance

JAMA. ;290():2798-2798.
FULL TEXT  

Proposals for US National Health Insurance

JAMA. ;290():2798-2798.
FULL TEXT  

Proposals for US National Health Insurance

JAMA. ;290():2798-2799.
FULL TEXT  

Proposals for US National Health Insurance

JAMA. ;290():2799-2799.
FULL TEXT