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<DIV class=story>Copyright 2007 Philadelphia Newspapers, LLC<BR>All Rights
Reserved
<DIV class=publication><BR>The Philadelphia
Inquirer</DIV></DIV></TD></TR><TR><TD height="10"></TD></TR><TR><TD>
<DIV class=story><SPAN id=hitDiv1>December</SPAN> 4, 2007 Tuesday <BR>CITY-D
Edition </DIV></TD></TR><TR><TD height="10"></TD></TR><TR><TD>
<DIV class=story>BUSINESS; P-com Biz; Pg. C02 </DIV></TD></TR><TR><TD
height="10"></TD></TR><TR><TD>
<DIV class=story>532 words</DIV></TD></TR><TR><TD height="10"></TD></TR><TR><TD
height="10"></TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=headline align="LEFT">Doctors endorse
single-payer; <BR>College of Physicians said it backed the system because access
to health care had deteriorated.</SPAN></TD> </TR><TR><TD
height="10"></TD></TR><TR><TD>
<DIV class=story>By Stacey Burling; Inquirer Staff Writer</DIV></TD></TR><TR><TD
height="10"></TD></TR><TR><TD>
<DIV class=story>
<P></P>The Philadelphia-based American College of Physicians - the nation's
second-largest physician group - endorsed a single-payer health-care system
yesterday.
<P></P>But the organization stopped short of saying that a single-payer system
like Medicare, in which the government would get and pay most bills, is the best
way to achieve universal health coverage.
<P></P>The group said the country also could do that through expansion of the
current mix of private insurance and government coverage. Under the proposal,
people would be required to get health insurance.
<P></P>While some physicians have formed organizations that push for
single-payer, David Dale, president of the College of Physicians, said his was
the largest general-interest doctor group to support the controversial idea.
<P></P>The group said change was necessary because access to health care had
deteriorated.
<P></P>The largest physician group in the United States, the American Medical
Association, does not support single-payer. Earlier this year, it released a
proposal to expand insurance coverage, primarily through tax incentives and
changes in insurance regulations.
<P></P>The College of Physicians' membership includes 124,000 internal-medicine
physicians and related specialists.
<P></P>After analyzing health care in the United States and 12 other
industrialized countries, the group concluded that universal coverage had been
successfully achieved elsewhere through single-payer and pluralistic systems.
<P></P>Either could work here, the report said. The pluralistic system gives
consumers more choice, but also leads to higher administrative costs and
inequalities. Because it is what the United States already has, it is less of a
political challenge. "It's like remodeling your house to make it better for your
whole family," Dale said.
<P></P>Single-payer has lower administrative costs, but is not politically
popular, he said. "I'm not a political analyst. I'm just a doctor," Dale said.
"But I think there will probably be resistance to that. That's why we don't have
it now." He said his group added it to its proposal to "heighten the debate."
<P></P>Thomas E. Getzen, a professor of insurance and health management at
Temple University, said doctors had long resisted single-payer systems for fear
it would give the government more control over them.
<P></P>Because much of the growth in expense in the current system is in
procedures performed by specialists or in increased use of technology like MRIs,
doctors who work in those areas have the most to fear from a single-payer
system, Getzen said. Internists, who serve as primary-care doctors for many
people, have less to fear.
<P></P>The College of Physicians also called for better payments for
primary-care doctors to help avert a shortage and for the creation of a uniform
billing system and greater use of electronic health records to reduce
administrative costs.
<P></P>Dale said that some U.S. doctors and hospitals were better than their
counterparts in other nations, but that this country's health system compares
poorly. "Part of our call is, 'Look around, guys, and see how other people are
doing,' " he said, "and they're doing better than us."
<P></P>Contact staff writer Stacey Burling at 215-854-4944 or <A
href="mailto:sburling@phillynews.com">sburling@phillynews.com</A>.</DIV></TD></TR></BODY></HTML>
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