Groups

Mission

Mission
Welcome to Students for a National Health Program, the student arm of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP). PNHP is a single-issue organization advocating a universal, comprehensive single-payer national health program with more than 23,000 members and around 100 chapters nation-wide. We believe that a single publicly funded, privately delivered universal health care system is necessary for us to provide high quality care to all our patients.

Despite spending more than twice as much as the rest of the industrialized nations, the United States performs poorly in comparison on major health indicators such as life expectancy, infant mortality, and immunization.

Moreover, the U.S. leaves 33 million people completely uninsured and millions more inadequately covered. Single-payer financing would save, on paper, more than $400 billion per year – enough to provide comprehensive coverage to everyone without paying any more than we already do.

While the Affordable Care Act will expand Medicaid and mandate the purchase of private insurance, it will still leave nearly 25 million people uninsured. It also has no concrete way to curb skyrocketing health care and administrative costs associated with a for-profit private health insurance industry. We can see a single-payer system in our lifetime and the time to act is now.

Membership Benefits