As physicians practicing across Nevada, we urge you to expand health care access, reduce costs and make comprehensive and affordable healthcare available to all Nevadans.

To achieve this goal, we ask you to pass the Nevada Public Option.

As physicians, we see too many Nevadans struggle to get the care they need to stay healthy, work, and care for their families. They have fewer options. They pay higher costs. Because of unaffordable health care, too many families in Nevada today struggle to make ends meet, especially low-income and rural families. They deserve change, and the Nevada Public Option can provide much-needed relief.

The Nevada Public Option:

• Ensures all Nevadans have at least one affordable healthcare option. Families who live outside populated counties like Clark and Washoe counties should not be punished. They often have only one plan on the health exchange or none at all. Additionally, rural Nevadans pay significantly more for health care, an average of $274 more than people in Clark County.

• Reins in skyrocketing premium costs. During the first year of implementation, the Nevada Public Option requires premiums to be at least 5 percent less expensive than the prior year, or 15 percent lower over the course of five years.

• Increases access to maternal and pregnancy care by closing gaps in Medicaid coverage.

• Promotes financial fairness by requiring participating health plans to pay providers rates that are comparable to or better than Medicare rates. That can provide critical support to financially strapped hospitals and physicians in rural areas that are more likely to care for patients on Medicaid and Medicare, or who are uninsured, and often face low cash flows.

Action is critical and delays will only further hurt Nevada families. Since 2010, average family premiums have increased 55 percent, at least twice as fast as wages at 27 percent, and inflation, 19 percent. Prices for more than 500 prescription drugs went up a median of 4.6 percent in 2020, about double the projected rate of inflation.

As a result of high healthcare costs, Nevada has the nation’s sixth-highest rate of people without health insurance. Nevada ranks among the least healthy states in the nation and second-to-last in how much it invests in healthcare. One out of every seven Nevadan women of childbearing age are uninsured, which puts the health of the woman and her child at risk. Black, Latino-Hispanic, indigenous, and other under-represented communities face significant disparities in birth and infant outcomes when compared to their white counterparts.

A public option is critical to improving health and saving the lives of all Nevadans, regardless of where they live. And during a pandemic, access to healthcare can mean life and death.

We urge you to pass the Nevada Public Option so all Nevadans may enjoy a healthier, stronger future.

Signed:

Maria Adolfo, MD; Internal Medicine (Las Vegas)

Salvatore Biazzo, DO; Family Medicine (Las Vegas)

Theresa Blumfelder, MD; Internal Medicine (Las Vegas)

Betsy Card, MD; Diagnostic Radiology (Reno)

Thomas Davee, MD; Cardiology (Reno)

Francis Del Vecchio, MD; Emergency Medicine (Las Vegas)

Stephen Frye, MD; Psychiatry (Las Vegas)

Jeffrey Gingold, MD; Geriatrics (Reno)

Jeffrey Goetz, MD; Internal Medicine (Reno)

Ati Hakimi, MD; Family Medicine (Henderson)

Gabe Inocencio, MD; Family Medicine (Elko)

Mary Kiepert, MD; Pediatrics (Las Vegas)

Randi Lampert, MD; Pediatrics (Las Vegas)

Casaundra Lindsey, MD; Emergency Medicine (Henderson)

Al Maher, MD; Internal Medicine (Reno)

Philip Malinas, MD; Psychiatry (Reno)

Terence McAllister, MD; Pediatrics (Las Vegas)

Karen McDermott, MD; Internal Medicine (Reno)

Jay Mead, MD; Pathology (Boulder City)

Abdul Muneer, MD; Internal Medicine (Las Vegas)

Helene Nepomuceno, MD; General Surgery (Las Vegas)

Beverly Neyland, MD; Pediatrics (Las Vegas)

Raanan Pokroy, MD; Emergency Medicine (Las Vegas)

Marc Reynolds, MD; Family Medicine (Fallon)

David Salinger, MD; Anesthesiology (Verdi)

Nita Schwartz, MD; Emergency Medicine (Genoa)

Cynthia Strand-Smart, MD; Pediatrics (Reno)

Reeta Thukral, MD; Nephrology (Las Vegas)

William Torch, MD; Neurology and Psychiatry (Reno)

Harpreet Tsui, DO, FACOI; Internal Medicine (Henderson)

Scott Welker, MD; Surgery (Zephyr Cove)

Basis Yakaitis, MD; Obstetrics & Gynecology (Las Vegas)

Jerry Zebrack, MD; Cardiology (Reno)