Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Oops, Medicare-For-All Idea Scored Big With Fox Audience; Europe's Alternatives Outperform Canada's Single Payer
It was a moment so surreal, it seemed almost like a dream. During Fox News鈥檚 Monday night town hall with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), host Bret Baier asked audience members how many had private health insurance. A large majority raised their hands. He then followed up by asking how many would like to see Medicare-for-all enacted. Almost all the same hands went up 鈥 remember, this was on Fox News! 鈥 with wild cheers to boot. Baier鈥檚 action violated a major rule of lawyers: Never ask a witness on the stand a question to which you don鈥檛 know the answer. (Helaine Olen, 4/16)
Sen. Bernie Sanders described his Medicare for All legislation in a Fox News town hall the other night: 鈥淲hat we are talking about is simply a single-payer insurance program, which means that you will have a card which says Medicare on it, you go to any doctor that you want, you will go to any hospital that you want.鈥 He added that 鈥測ou鈥檙e not paying any more premiums, you鈥檙e not paying any more copayments, you鈥檙e not paying any more deductibles.鈥 In another context, he said the plan 鈥渨ould allow all Americans, regardless of their income, to get the health care they need when they need it.鈥 Not so fast. The experience of Canada, which follows the Sanders model, shows that single payer is not the best way to achieve the goal of access to timely care. (Regina E. Herzlinger and Bacchus Barua, 4/16)
Bernie Sanders鈥檚 Medicare-for-all proposal would transform health insurance in the United States, and you don鈥檛 have to read very far into the bill he released last week to understand just how far-reaching, and politically controversial, the change would be.In its first few pages, well before you get to the part about zero co-pay coverage for 鈥渙ral health,鈥 Sanders announces that he would abrogate two long-standing compromises woven into the current patchwork of public and private insurance. (Charles Lane, 4/15)
In Donald Trump鈥檚 two-plus years as president, his approach to policymaking has often been defined by an unsavory stew of indecision, inaction, flip-flops and outright lies. Nowhere has this been truer than with health care, where the administration has reversed direction multiple times.A short history: During his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump said he would produce a health care plan that provided universal coverage and also promised that he would not cut Medicare or Medicaid. (Steven Rattner, 4/15)