Check out HCFA-WA vice president John Sobeck's letter to the editor of the Seattle Times!
Health care: ‘Single-payer model’
Re: “The problem with that ‘Great Healthcare Plan’ ” (Jan. 28, Opinion):
Columnist Lisa Jarvis rightly highlights the core flaw in replacing Affordable Care Act subsidies with Health Savings Accounts: HSAs work tolerably well for the healthy and affluent, and fail precisely when people need care the most. Health care is not a predictable consumer good. No one can “shop” their way out of cancer, trauma or a complicated pregnancy.
Washington state offers a more serious alternative. For years, Health Care for All – Washington has advanced a single-payer model that replaces fragmented insurance with universal, comprehensive coverage. The goal is straightforward: everyone covered, and costs controlled through global budgets and negotiated rates — rather than financial triage by households.
President Donald Trump’s proposal is not really about HSAs versus subsidies; it is about whether we continue to tolerate a system that rations care by income and luck. Evidence is clear that consumer-directed accounts exacerbate inequity and underinsurance. Universal systems, by contrast, spread risk broadly and lower administrative waste.
If federal leaders are unwilling to protect affordable coverage, states like Washington should continue leading. Health Care for All – Washington’s single-payer work shows that there is a viable, fiscally responsible path forward — one that treats health care as infrastructure, not a gamble.
John Sobeck, M.D., MBA, vice president, Health Care for All – Washington