What the experts say

Subtopic I: Flaws of the existing system
1. "In private practice we waste countless hours on billing and bureaucracy..diagnosis related groups have placed us between administrators demanding early discharge and elderly patients with no one to help them at home." - Physicians David U. Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler
2. " In 1992 and 1994 hundreds of special interests groups cumulatively have spent in excess of 100 million dollars to influence the out come of [universal health care]. At least 97 firms and other health care clients have hired at least 80 former member of Congress who left the government in 1993 or 1994 to work for health care interests."- Charles Lewis Washington Post
3."One in five U.S. adults say they do not have adequate access to health care they need."- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2007
4 It's a global competitiveness issue. Even if it weren't, it's a cost issue. Health care costs are growing at a rate that's simply not sustainable. [Our members] are in the business of business, not the business of health care."- Charles Kolb, president of the Committee for Economic Development

Subtopic II: Benefits to Society

1. "Health insurers' overhead came to $120 billion last year, of which $40 billion was profit. By comparison, it would cost $54 billion to cover all the uninsured." -John Sheils of the Lewis Group heath care consultants
2."14,000 doctors and other health care professionals favor a single payer system." -Physicians for a national health program
3."It is disgraceful that an American mother has almost three times the rise of losing a child as a mother in the Czech Republic." - Nicolas D Kristof, New York Times

Subtopic III: Health Care as a Right

1." Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well being of oneself and one's family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care." -United Nations 1948
2." Poverty, powerlessness, and inequality damage the health of an entire society...a huge dividend would result simply by reducing excessive CEO salaries and profits, and raising up those at the bottom of the income scale. We could start in the health care sector."- Rev. Linda H. Walling
3."Public education, social security, national defence, the Nation Institutes of Health, and military medicine in the U.S. are all socialized. These programs are government financed and providers of the services work for the government." David DeGrazia

Subtopic IV: Benefits for the Individual
1. "In 2005 more than a quarter of insured Americans didn't fill prescriptions, skipped recommended treatments, or didn't see a doctor when sick."-Commonwealth Fund's 2005 Biennial Health Insurance Survey
2. "6.8 million working adults have been denied health coverage because of preexisting medical conditions in the last two years, and 8.2 million said at least one member of the family has been dropped by their insurer during that period." - A 1992 Kaiser Family Foundation National Survey