A single-payer plan will save money. In 2009,the New York State Department of Health and Department of Insurance contracted with the Urban Institute compared four options for health reform in the state, including single payer (“Public Health Insurance for All”). The researchers found that single payer was the only plan that would provide healthcare for all state residents and was the most efficient way to cut healthcare costs. In fact, savings from single payer would dramatically increase over time. The Urban Institute estimated that by 2019, a single-payer system would save $20 billion annually when compared to the present system.

Even more compelling: a single payer system would cost $28 billion less annually than an individual mandate plan and $19 billion less annually by 2019 than an expansion of Family Health Plus. (Physicians for a National Health Program)

We support a “Robin Hood Tax.” Speculators on Wall Street got away with raiding our economic wealth. We support a tax that in essence, asks for a bare minimum back to support not only healthcare, but also a wide array of services—schools, housing, local governments—for all citizens. This tax is a small transaction fee (1/2 of 1%) on Wall Street transactions. While this “cost” would result in little change on Wall Street itself, it would mean hundreds of billions of dollars in new revenue per year. It’s a tax that unlike so many affecting the wealthy, is tough to evade, and it would not affect the day-to-day financial transactions of average individuals.

For more information on the Robin Hood Tax, please click here.