Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Single-Payer Perspectives: 'A Growing Moment' Or 'No Miracle Cure'
Last week, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced 鈥淢edicare for all鈥 legislation, which would enroll all Americans into the nation鈥檚 Medicare program within four years. Senator Sanders, the Vermont independent, argues that his proposal would create a system that 鈥渨orks not just for millionaires and billionaires, but for all of us.鈥 (Lanhee J. Chen and Micah Weinberg, 9/19)
From a candidate who famously declared that single payer will 鈥渘ever ever come to pass鈥 and branded it as offering everyone 鈥渁 pony鈥 to legislation 鈥 Sen. Bernie Sanders鈥 Senate Bill 1804, co-sponsored by a third of Senate Democrats, and Rep. John Conyers鈥 House Resolution 676 by half of House Democrats. What happened? A huge shift toward participatory democracy, with millions of people participating in rewriting what is possible and necessary for their lives. (RoseAnn DeMoro, 9/18)
Bernie Sanders talks big, but the record shows that in his 25 years in Congress he has failed to deliver on any of his ideological proposals. Expect the same from the independent Vermont senator鈥檚 ambitious Medicare for all plan. It鈥檚 impossible to take his single-payer plan seriously because it fails to address the single biggest issue: how to pay for it. (9/18)
There鈥檚 a joke we sometimes tell in Canada: What鈥檚 a Canadian? An apologetic American with health care. It鈥檚 funny because we half-believe it鈥檚 true. The United States and Canada are about as similar as two countries get. But Canada has had a publicly funded, single-payer health care system in each of our provinces and territories since the 1960s. It works. Maybe it can work for you too. (Danielle Martin, 9/18)