The mission of our organization is to advocate for a universal, comprehensive single-payer national health program with fewer administrative costs and affordable health insurance for all. Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) is an established non-profit research and education organization of 18,000 physicians, medical students, and health professionals who support single-payer national health insurance. Currently, there is a bill in Congress, H.R. 676, which would expand and improve Medicare for all.
Despite spending more than twice as much as the rest of the industrialized nations, the United States performs poorly in comparison on major health indicators such as life expectancy, infant mortality, and immunization. Moreover, the U.S. leaves 51 million people completely uninsured and millions more inadequately covered. Single-payer financing would save, on paper, more than $400 billion per year – enough to provide comprehensive coverage to everyone without paying any more than we already do.
While the Affordable Care Act will expand Medicaid and mandate the purchase of private insurance, it will still leave nearly 25 million people uninsured. It also has no concrete way to curb skyrocketing health care and administrative costs associated with a for-profit private health insurance industry. We believe that a comprehensive national health insurance program is the only way to provide equitable, affordable care to all Americans.
Our PNHP group also aims to get involved with other single payer and medical activism efforts in the city of Chicago. There are PNHP student chapters at Rush and University of Illinois at Chicago medical schools and an active network of engaged physicians and other health professionals in the city.
Contact: Marissa Korte, Nikhil Umesh, and Callie Winters
Faculty Advisor: Valerie Press, MD, Ph.D, Department of Medicine