It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism by Bernie Sanders & John Nichols

Author:Bernie Sanders & John Nichols [Sanders, Bernie & Nichols, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781802063127
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2024-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

Making Medicare for All a Reality

In 1965, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Medicare and Medicaid Act into law, declaring that the time had finally come to end “the injustice which denies the miracle of healing to the old and to the poor.” Today, almost six decades later, Medicare is the most popular health care program in America, providing comprehensive health care coverage for all those sixty-five and older. It’s also the best model for health care reform in the United States.

In the face of a dysfunctional and failing health care system, the time is long overdue for us to improve and expand Medicare to cover all Americans, and that is what I have proposed with Medicare for All legislation, which would provide comprehensive health care coverage, without out-of-pocket expense, for every man, woman, and child in the country regardless of age, family income, or geographical location. It is a system based on addressing the health needs of the American people, not the profit needs of insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry.

Under Medicare for All, there will no longer be insurance premiums, deductibles, or co-payments. No more worrying about whether you can afford to see a doctor, no more arguing with insurance agents about the nature of your coverage, no more being hounded by bill collectors for unpaid medical bills, no more worries about going bankrupt from a hospital bill.

This legislation not only expands Medicare to cover all Americans, it also significantly improves upon the services for elderly and disabled Americans who are covered by the existing Medicare program—providing coverage for dental, hearing, and vision care.

Under Medicare for All, there will be no more private “networks,” which limit choice as to where Americans can get their medical care. Instead, there will be something we now lack in the United States: complete freedom of choice as to the doctor and hospital you want.

The comprehensive coverage under Medicare for All includes inpatient and outpatient hospital care; emergency services; primary and preventive services; prescription drugs; mental health and substance abuse treatment; maternity and newborn care; pediatrics; home- and community-based long-term services and supports; dental, audiology, and vision services.

This legislation would be phased in over a five-year period. The first year would expand Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing, cover all young people under eighteen, reduce the eligibility age to fifty-five, and eliminate deductibles. The second year would lower the eligibility age to forty-five. In the third year, the eligibility age would go down to thirty-five. By the end of the fourth year, everyone would be covered.

The comprehensiveness and simplicity of a Medicare for All system not only benefit individuals and families; they aid the business community and our overall economy by ending the costly and uneven system of employer-based health care. As all Americans would have health care coverage as a right, small- and medium-sized businesses would be free to focus on their core business goals instead of wasting precious energy and resources navigating an absurdly complex system to provide health insurance to their employees.

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