Guaranteed Healthcare

HR 676: Healthcare Savings for Healthier Cities

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The ABCs of Improved Medicare-for-All
A Primer for the Kingston City School District
Here’s an example of how HR 676 could benefit just one school district.

Following national trends, each year a larger share of the budget of the Kingston
City School District (Ulster County, NY) is needed to meet health benefit costs,
which have nearly tripled over the last ten years.

In 2007-2008 the Kingston City School District paid out $65.6 million in wages and
$22.6 million for health benefits, including basic hospital, medical, dental and
vision care and a 1.45% payroll tax for Medicare.

Under HR 676, the school district would have paid only $3.9 million for health
benefits, resulting in a savings of $18.7 million for the 2007-2008 school year.
Under HR 676, the average school district employee with an annual wage of
$44,700 would pay only $123/month in a new 3.3% payroll tax—eliminating
co-pays and deductibles.

The savings could:

• support 200 new teachers
• fund major capital improvements to every school
• reduce class size and provide a teaching assistant for every class

The Kingston City School District is just one of 87,850 state and local government
jurisdictions in the U.S. Imagine the impact of replicating these savings over the
entire country!

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* Rebuild 30,000 lane miles of road?
* Build 560,000 units of affordable housing?
* Hire 1 million teachers, firefighters, police and other critical employees?
* Renovate 7,000 schools?

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Healthcare Savings for Healthier Cities

For far too long, rising healthcare costs have drained local
and state budgets of the resources they need to rebuild,
renovate and restore the vitality of their communities.

• Our employees are paying more in premiums, co-pays
and deductibles, yet too many are denied needed care.

• Increasing health benefits costs—averaging 11% a
year since 1999—consume city and county budgets,
leaving more and more of our residents uninsured.
(Currently, 48 million Americans lack health insurance.)

• Tax revenues cannot fill the gap, especially during an
economic downturn.

• As state and local government debt increases, bond
ratings go down.

• With state and local coffers bleeding, residents face
cuts in needed services such as police and fire protection,
medical services for the uninsured, parks
and recreation.

The passage of HR 676—Improved Medicare-for-All—is
a win-win situation. It could transform this bleak picture,
providing guaranteed health care for all while helping
financially-strapped state and local governments find
new monies to underwrite growing challenges. Indeed,
estimates show that they could realize at least $70
billion in annual health care savings.

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Healthy Cure for Ailing Cities
State legislatures and the US Congress have proposed reform measures to
address the health insurance crisis. Because most do not change the way
we finance health care, they fall woefully short.

HR 676—Improved Medicare-for-All—is the best cure for the American
health care crisis because:

• It saves money and controls costs by replacing multiple public and private
payers with a single national health insurance program. The national
program will negotiate fees with providers, purchase drugs and medical
supplies in bulk, and monitor budgets and capital plans for hospitals and
other medical facilities.

• It minimizes risk, combining the whole US population into one large
pool of over 300 million people.

• It eliminates private insurance. Private insurance eats up 30% of every
dollar in profits, marketing and administration. Medicare operates on less
than 5% overhead.

• It simplifies health care. One program will cover all health issues for
everyone.

• It guarantees quality care for all. No one can be denied care or forced to
use an emergency room because s/he has no doctor or coverage.
Healthy Cure for Ailing Cities
State legislatures and the US Congress have proposed reform measures to
address the health insurance crisis. Because most do not change the way
we finance health care, they fall woefully short.
Winning HR 676 is Up to You

• Have your city, town or state pass a resolution supporting HR 676
and send it to your Congressional representatives and state legislators.
Go to www.healthcare-now.org to download a sample
municipal resolution.

• If you are a Mayor, Governor, Commissioner or other local elected
official, call a press conference and declare your support for HR
676, Improved Medicare for All. Explain that it is the only health
insurance solution that will save your local jurisdiction money, eliminate
bureaucracy and guarantee quality health care for everyone.
Healthcare-NOW will help you identify other leaders and organizations
in your area who support HR 676 and who will stand with you
before the press.

• Form a delegation of local elected officials in your Congressional
District. Meet with your Congressperson and ask that s/he endorse
HR 676. Explain that it is critical to restore fiscal health to local
government.

• Win endorsements from national bodies that represent you, such as:
The National League of Cities
The Council of State Governments
The United States Conference of Mayors
The National Governors Association
National Conference of State Legislatures
The National Urban League
The National Association of County Administrators
The International City/County Management Association

• Be an effective advocate about HR 676. Learn more at:

www.healthcare-now.org

www.house.gov/conyers

www.pnhp.org

www.calnurses.org

Sources:

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), National Health Expenditures data, 1987-2006
and 2002-2017.

The US Census. State and Local Government Finances, 2004-2005; State and Local Government
Employment and Payroll data, 2006.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, 2001-2007.

Woolhandler, Campbell and Himmelstein, “Costs of Health Care Administration in the United States
and Canada,” N Eng J Med 2003; 349:768-75.

Woolhandler, et al. “Paying for National Health Insurance—And Not Getting It,” Health Affairs 21(4);
July / Aug. 2002.

Kingston City School District budgets provided by Art Richter, Healthcare-NOW!, Business Coalition
for Single Payer.