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Motion of the Council of Allegheny County supporting any and all lawmakers at the various levels of government throughout the country to take swift and expedient action to support legislation or other efforts that will lead to the establishment of a national single-payer healthcare system.
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WHEREAS, each and every person in the County of Allegheny - as well as in all of the United States - is deserving of robust, high-quality healthcare that provides excellent, patient-oriented outcomes; and
WHEREAS, in a 2017 study, the American College of Physicians affirmed the clear fact that health insurance reduces mortality and noted that the probability of dying among individuals with health insurance relative to those without health insurance is 0.71 to 0.97 percent, with an estimated 36,000 Americans dying prematurely on a yearly basis because they do not have health insurance; and
WHEREAS, despite paying $3.3 trillion annually on healthcare, which is nearly twice as much as any other high-income country, the U.S. nonetheless receives poor marks on international scoring matrices; and
WHEREAS, drawing on survey data it has collected since 1998 and supplementing that evidence with comparative data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Health Organization, and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, The Commonwealth Fund found that when evaluating access, healthcare outcomes, and equity, the U.S. ranks last in an 11-country survey. Overall, the U.S. ranks last in overall healthcare system performance; and
WHEREAS, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 2016-2025 national health expenditure forecast, national health spending is projected to grow at a yearly average pace of 5.6 percent and at a pace of 4.7 percent per year per capita; and
WHEREAS, although improvements were made through the Affordable Care Act, many Americans ...
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