My Speech at Single-Payer Health Care Rally in Albany

My name is Matt Funiciello. I am a small business owner here in the state of NY. I own a wholesale bread bakery in Moreau, N.Y. and we employ about 40 people. As wheat prices have tripled, we have had to struggle to find new ways to make ends meet. We had been purchasing terrible overpriced HMO insurance for those of our workers who chose to participate and we had been paying approximately 50% of the premiums.

Several months ago, we were forced to cancel our participation in said plan leaving our workers to find coverage elsewhere or do without. Some are lucky enough to have a spouse whose employer is better able to cover these expenses. Some are simply going without and some are trying to buy insurance on their own and now paying more because they are buying insurance as individuals and are not able to benefit from group purchasing.

I would just think of this as a hard time, a time we'll all eventually pass through but I find it very hard to do that. You see, I grew up in Canada and have lived under the care of a real health care system so I find it very hard to watch my children, my friends and my workers struggle on without something so vital as adequate and affordable access to doctors and health care. Being fully aware that greed and waste are what make their suffering possible is a terrible cross to bear.

Senator Charles Schumer said the other day, "Healthcare, I feel strongly about, but I am not sure that we're ready for a major national healthcare plan."

Schumer is not the first elected official to question our readiness for national health care. He and many others seem unable to comprehend the simple math that allows those of in small business to understand what they cannot.

Lets play the Single-Payer/Small Business Math Game for just a second ...

We are currently spending $7,129 dollars per person to cover 257,000,000 Americans badly.
This costs about $1.832 trillion dollars a year.

Now, over 30 other industrialized nations have universal health care and it costs them all about half of that amount per capita with universal coverage.

Lets take off our politician's hats for a moment and put on our Small Business Owner's hats instead.

$1.832 trillion dollars divided by 304,000,000 Americans equals $6027 dollars per person.

So, for all of you non-politicians out there who are able to do simple math, we just took the current amount actually being spent on health care in this country and divided it by the number of people who actually live here and ... the result? We see that everyone in this country could be covered for the exact same amount being spent today if we were just able to lower our per capita
costs from $7129 to $6027 per person, a difference of just over $1,100 dollars.

Well, is that possible? Could we do it? Lets keep our small business owner's hats on for just another minute and speak plainly about this dilemma. Where can we find and save this $1100 dollars per person that would allow us to cover everyone?

I bet many of you non-politicians already know the answer. We currently suffer under a system that allows for profit and administrative costs that run as high as 35%! If we could bring those costs down, that would be great, because together they amount to almost $2500 dollars per year per person! I remind you ... we only needed to save $1100 to achieve the desired result, full coverage for all!

Now, if Canadians and 35 other industrialized countries can all have health care for half of what we spend and live a year longer, why can't we? Its sure as heck not because of a lack of money being thrown at this problem.

And, if Medicare can run effectively with only a 2-3% administrative costs, why can't the private sector? I thought it was more efficient to privatize things? Apparently, its not and we need to do that other thing business does well, centralize and negotiate pricing.

Its time for our elected officials to stop telling us lies. We already spend far more than any other country does for universal care. It is time for single payer health care now! It is also time to withhold your votes from any politician who refuses to step up to the plate and hit this ball out of the park. We're virtually lobbing it to you. If you can't hit it, then lets have someone else step up to the plate who can!