Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Thinking About A Single-Payer System: Pros And Cons Of 'Medicare For All'
Bernie Sanders is right. Given the growing costs and shrinking benefits of Obamacare, and the flame-out of 鈥渞epeal and replace,鈥 America should transition to Medicare for All. (Marcia Angell, 9/21)
My 93-year-old father recently came home from the hospital proudly harboring a life-saving $50,000 aortic valve paid for by Medicare, though he rode home in a wheelchair that Medicare didn鈥檛 pay for. This gap in services is growing, as Medicare struggles to cover emerging technologies that are not one-size-fits all while at the same time continuing to provide basic care. If Medicare is converted to single-payer or Medicare for all, as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont proposes, tens of millions more patients will be added to an already faltering system, and the gap between the promise of care and actual care delivered will widen. (Marc Siegel, 9/20)
Recently, President Donald Trump warned Republican senators that they must do something or be confronted with the dangers of "single-payer" health care. But, single-payer shouldn't be the boogeyman -- its time has come. (Mark Dimondstein, 9/20)
Some of the naysayers are conservatives who simply abhor 鈥渂ig government.鈥 Some have perfectly valid reasons to question the merits of single payer in general or Sanders鈥 methods in particular. Yet others claim they support universal healthcare in theory (one day, perhaps) but cannot do so now because of a 鈥渃oncern.鈥 They are 鈥渃oncern trolls鈥 鈥 broadly defined as 鈥渁 person who disingenuously expresses concern about an issue with the intention of undermining or derailing genuine discussion.鈥 (Adam H. Johnson, 9/21)