HEALTH CARE
MEDICARE4ALL / Single Payer
Medicare is the most popular health care program in America. Fifty-five years ago, the United States took an important step towards universal health care by passing the Medicare program into law. Guaranteeing comprehensive health benefits for Americans over 65 has proven to be enormously successful and popular. Now is the time to improve and expand Medicare for all.
Right now, the United States is the only major nation in the world that does not provide health care for every man, woman and child as a right. We spend almost twice as much per capita on health care as any other major country, yet our health outcomes in terms of life expectancy, infant mortality and disease prevention are not nearly as good. Last year, one out of four Americans skipped needed medical care because they could not afford it. It is simply unacceptable that thousands of people die each year because they do not have health insurance and do not get to a doctor on time.
A single-payer system would provide comprehensive, cost-effective health care for every person in America. People would no longer have to choose between a myriad of complicated private insurance plans, which may not cover their needs, or be forced on to a plan that is prohibitively expensive because of the lack of alternatives. The U.S. would no longer pay by far the highest prescription drug costs in the world because the government would be able to negotiate drug prices. Businesses would no longer have to administer health insurance benefits and employees would not have to worry about losing their insurance if they lose their job. The 34 million Americans who still do not have coverage, and the 41 million who are underinsured, would no longer have to worry that an unforeseen illness or accident would mean bankruptcy.
The economic reality is that we currently spend nearly 18 percent of our GDP on health care – over $10,000 per person. If we retain the status quo, we will spend an estimated nearly $60 trillion over the next decade on health care. Meanwhile, drug companies and insurance companies make hundreds of billions of dollars in profits each year. That is unaffordable, unsustainable and unacceptable.
This is why I introduced the Medicare for All Act. Under this legislation, every resident of the U.S. will receive health insurance through an expanded Medicare program with improved and comprehensive benefits, including dental, hearing and vision care. Furthermore, there would be no more insurance premiums, deductibles or co-payments.
Let me be absolutely clear, the most cost-effective and popular solution to this health care crisis is to guarantee health care as a right through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer health care system. In fact, studies have found that our federal government could save up to $500 billion per year on administrative costs by moving to Medicare for All. Please read my “Financing Medicare for All” proposal.
As we have seen with the COVID-19 pandemic, in times of crisis, the last thing people should have to worry about is whether they will be able to afford medical care. Medicare for All would provide peace of mind to every American.
FIRST TERM:
10 CITY ROLLOUT OF MEDICARE4ALL for testing for cost benefit analysis
Bring East Palestine under M4A
Force single payer option committee & vote
This is one of the areas that my campaign will be reaching out and really digging into the tentacles stretched out and into our politicians and government system already to find out what the best path forward is.
MOST IMPORTANTLY I will treat health care lobbyists the same way I treat all lobbyists; like scum of the earth.
A 'single payer' type of system implemented as "Medicare4ALL" or just a government offered "Single Payer Option" directly competing with current marketplace, are the future but I have been torn between the different systems and disparate outcomes I've seen implemented in different locations, economies, and populations.
HARD TRUTHS
Americans have less trust in institutions and government than any time I can remember in our lifetime. I am running for President of the United States because of that lack of trust and care for our fellow citizens. It will take time, diligence, and setting higher standards of delivery for the federal government services before we are able to manifest a national movement towards these options.
We're not going to sit on our hands ! I've been following the single payer movement in California closely, known as "CalCare" and was initially hoping that a large state would provide a great blueprint for the advantages and shortfalls before a more robust program recommended to our fellow citizens. More options in the marketplace are ALWAYS BETTER FOR CONSUMERS and will mean a driving down of costs. Competition teamed with new abilities in technology and AI, we should be able to offer a program that can compete directly in the marketplace at a FRACTION of the cost while taking care of doctors and patients alike.
In it's absence and after the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, it will be my intention to bring these citizens under the same type of Medicare situation utilized in Libby, Montana and hopefully another eight cities, disparate in geography and social makeup to get better information. Below you'll find information I've pulled from Bernie Sanders website and I will be now moving this program down the road for the progressive movement, focusing on PROGRESS, not PROGRESSIVISM.
The message is not blue or red. It is black and white.
Working People must band together around class in this great time of upheaval and change.
The Democratic Party are unable to deliver results for the middle class because they are disconnected.
The working class movement that Bernie Sanders reignited is not over.
It is getting a militant upgrade.
Join the fight. Build the future.
