�Թϲ�����

Imagine a world in which the rosy assumptions Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) makes on behalf of his “Medicare for all” health-care plan turn out to be true. That is what Charles Blahous, a professor at George Mason University’s libertarian-leaning Mercatus Center, did in a paper released last month. He found that the government would expand massively — by a whopping $32.6 trillion over 10 years, gobbling up an additional 12.7 percent of gross domestic product by 2031. If everything went perfectly, millions more people would be covered and receive generous benefits over that decade, while the country as a whole would save $2 trillion in total health-care costs when reductions in private health-care spending are taken into account. But that is a cosmically huge “if.” (8/12)

A growing majority of Americans agree: Health care shouldn’t be a business. They’re finally coming around to the idea that it can and should be a public good instead — something we can all turn to when the need arises. The favorite right-wing argument against Medicare for All — the most popular approach to universal, publicly financed heath care — is that it’s too expensive. More on those costs in a moment. But first, we should note that our current health care system is actually the most expensive in the world by a long shot, even though we have millions of uninsured and underinsured people and lackluster health outcomes. (Meagan Day and Bhaskar Sunkara, 8/10)

The man I intended to spend the rest of my life with died in a plane crash in 2010. It was devastating, so much so that I lost interest in my job, as the point of it was little more than paying down debt and saving for a future that wasn’t meant to be. I quit the job and was offered Cobra, which would have let me retain my health insurance up to 18 months after my resignation. But at more than $500 a month, Cobra was more than I could afford. I had $1,500 to my name, and it had to last for as many months as possible while I grieved and figured out what to do with my life without Joshua. A newly leased sedan, car insurance and student-loan payments left little room in my budget for health insurance. (Bolton, 8/12)

The Trump administration’s most recent effort to fight high prices for prescription drugs takes a small step in the right direction. A recent new rule issued by Health and Human Services will use market-based competition to help lower the cost of prescription drugs for the more market- sensitive Medicare Advantage program. Medical care providers have a financial incentive to prescribe expensive medicines because they often earn a commission based on the value of the drugs they prescribe. Thus, the cheaper the drug, the less commission the care provider stands to earn. (Rea S. Hederman, 8/11)

Not content with trying to defund Medicaid, Republicans continue to push changes in eligibility to make it harder to get, including work requirements. In compliance with a law passed by a heartless majority in the legislature last year, a few months ago the Ohio Department of Medicaid requested a waiver to implement work requirements for "able-bodied" Medicaid recipients. (Kenneth Frisof, 8/10)