If I had a nickel for every time I’ve told you I favor single payer health care, I could take my place with the 0.1% and sniff my imported catnip and lap my sweet Italian cream from jewel-studded golden saucers. I’m sure we aren’t about to get it. However, we are going to hold hearings about it in Congress. The last time that happened was 70 years ago.
The debate about Medicare for All is about to get more serious ― and more complicated.
The idea of creating a single national health insurance program for all Americans has been a big topic of political conversation since 2016, when Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) touted it during his Democratic presidential campaign. But Medicare for All couldn’t be anything more than a rallying cry as long as Republicans controlled the levers of power in Washington.
Political circumstances are different now. Democrats hold the House majority and, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office confirmed to The Washington Post on Thursday, at least two committees will hold hearings on Medicare for All this year. Exactly what those hearings will entail isn’t clear ― Democratic leaders aren’t saying ― but one focus will be a bill that Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) plans to introduce in the next few weeks.
Jayapal is a leader of a Medicare for All House caucus that had 78 members as of late November and, with an infusion of newly elected Democrats, should soon have more. The new bill will be similar to one she co-sponsored in the last Congress, which in turn was similar to a bill Sanders introduced in the Senate.
Jayapal has said she hopes a version will get a floor vote, although that seems a long ways off. The committees taking up the proposal initially aren’t actually the ones that would write a health care bill. Even so, the hearings could represent the most serious attention the concept has received on Capitol Hill since the late 1940s, when committees took up then-President Harry Truman’s similarly designed, but ill-fated national health insurance proposal…
Inserted from <Huffington Post>
A little over a year ago, Chuck Todd attack-interviewed my Senator, Jeff Merkley [D-OR]. Here’s the video:
To answer Todd’s objection that the plan would cost $3 – 4 billion per year with no way to pay for it, the US currently spends $3.3 trillion per year on health care. 75% is on insurance. Americans would spend $2.5 trillion less on premiums, more than enough to cover the $4 billion.
As Jeff explained, Medicare for all is only a partial description for whatever single payer plan we adopt. To get decent health care now, a Medicare beneficiary has to get either separate Medicare supplement and prescription drug policies, or a Medicare Advantage Plan. The drug policies are pretty bad. On non-generics, the prescription co-pays cost than I would pay for the same drug in a foreign pharmacy. And the donut hole is horrid. Since September, I have paid over $1000 per month. That needs to be fixed
We are a long way from finding the right plan and implementing it. However, unless we start talking about it in Congress, we’ll never get there. This is a good step.
RESIST!!
13 Responses to “Single Payer: The struggle Returns”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
“It’s still the law of the land.” No, it isn’t. Ignoring the fact that it was already watered down when it first passed, it has been so stripped of teeth that what is left is only the palest shadow of it. And besides that …
Excuse the hiatus. Between Jeff’s passion and mine we crashed my computer and I had to start the video over.
Medicare is also not what it used to be. But I won’t go down that road any farther right now. I think the biggest thing is that playing defense doesn’t get you anywhere. If you are playing defense, the best you can do is not lose. We need better than that We need to win.
I agree. Despite all Medicare’s problems, I’m grateful to have it.
No health care system is going to be perfect. Every system is going to generate its share of horror stories. However, isn’t 600,000 personal bankruptcies a year something we really should avoid?
Provided that we can accomplish it by making those bankruptcies unnecessary, and not by simply making it more difficult to file and get them approved, I agree.
I know a few folks who ride down to Mexico to get their prescripts, and dental work done down there. It’s cheaper, and so is the medicine. Not that anyone could do this, (I don’t), but they do it out of necessity, as they would be poorer than they are now, and do it out of necessity. It’s important that this is going to be discussed, and certainly fixed to a degree that helps everyone with regard to this issue. I wish I had an answer, but I don’t.
Divergent, I am so very sorry and saddened to read of your husband’s cancer, and of what has is happening to him, and to you too.
You too, TC, the cost of meds is way too high, we found that out with my DiL’s prescripts re: her NMO (not MS) a few years back. Surprisingly…since she became vegan, she has found out that she has fewer lesions on her spine, and has not had an episode in about a year now. ptl !!!
If you’re interested…here’s a link to the Guthy-Jackson re: NMO.
https://guthyjacksonfoundation.org/
We need to join the rest of the civilized western world, well, no, we can no longer pretend that we are civilized with Pres. Grifter both in office, and enjoying ANY support.
We need to join other western countries and get a national health care plan going. Any discussions now may help bring it to fruition sooner rather than later. Hopeful!
Everyone deserves to be covered by a good health care program. Why all these years our leaders have continued to not come up with a plane, is insane. I will continue to sign and call members, what ever it takes to get them to create a plan for all.
There is an immense difference between Democrats and Republicans being divided on Single Payer healthcare and Democrats disagreeing with each other on certain details of some sort of Single Payer plan. Americans really should learn to compromise, at least within the Democratic party. In the past Republicans were really good at keeping their bickering behind closed doors and show some unity in their voting. Until the Tea Party and Freedom Caucus took over, that is.
Democrats must learn to compromise and come up with the best Health Care plan for most people, not an impossible perfect plan for everyone, and all stand behind it. Unless they do, Democrats will never regain the trust in government which the GOP has so thoroughly destroyed.
And dont allow the media to call Democrats “divided”, Drumpf and his minions feed on division.
I read within the past few days that someone in the US was saying ‘why not look at Canada’s system?’ So I went on the hunt for the article to no avail. I did however come across this article in AlterNet from August 2018. Of course Meagan McCain . . . meh! . . . has no idea what she is talking about. Typical Republican! Our universal healthcare is not perfect but we do not leave our citizens ‘dying in the streets’ because they cannot afford to pay. Healthcare is a human right and a provincial responsibility! When it comes too prescription drugs, some provinces cover them 100% while others partially cover them with the patient responsible for a deductible which is determined by income level. During the recent NAFTA re-negotiations, the price on prescriptions was a target of the US. Our provincial healthcare negotiates with the pharmaceutical companies for the best deal.
As Americans use Obamacare, they have come to appreciate it more and more, but it is not universal. As you say, “…the plan would cost $3 – 4 billion per year with no way to pay for it, the US currently spends $3.3 trillion per year on health care. 75% is on insurance. Americans would spend $2.5 trillion less on premiums, more than enough to cover the $4 billion.” Interesting that the US can spend billions on unnecessary wars etc without regard for how to pay for them. Or currently, the US has a WH resident who wants to build an unnecessary wall across the southern border for $5.6 billion, but it cannot put some form of universal healthcare in place.
On a related note, whatever happened to Trump’s “better than Obamacare” healthcare plan? Right, he lied and continues to lie daily!
Trump agrees that Americans’ health care is a provincial responsibility. He wants Canada to pay for it.
Thanks and healthy hugs to all!
Australian system ;
“Medicare gives you access to:
a range of medical services for free or at a lower cost including:
doctors
specialists
optometrists and
at times, dentists and other allied health professionals
lower cost prescriptions, and
free care as a public patient in a public hospital
You can also get a 75% rebate of the Medicare Schedule fee for services and procedures you have as a private
patient. This can be in a public or private hospital. This doesn’t include hospital accommodation and items such
as theatre fees and medicines.”
“Medicare gives Australian residents access to health care.
It is partly funded by the Medicare levy, which is 2% of your taxable income.
You may get a reduction or exemption from paying the Medicare levy.
Your Medicare levy is reduced if your taxable income is below a certain threshold.
In some cases, you may not have to pay this levy at all.”
https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/subjects/medicare-services