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LIVE: Bernie Sanders Introduces His Medicare for All Act

LIVE: Bernie Sanders Introduces His Medicare for All Act

Move over Obamacare, it’s single-payer’s day to shine

Watch live as Bernie Sanders introduces his Medicaid for All Act:

Detroit local news reports:

Sanders is set to introduce his legislation, which Democrats are calling “Medicare for All,” on Wednesday. It would replace private health insurance markets and have the federal government foot all medical bills.

Already, two Democrats seen as potential presidential contenders, California Sen. Kamala Harris and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have said they’ll co-sponsor the bill — as have Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz and Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Jeff Merkley of Oregon all said they’ll back the bill as well.

Booker also said he’ll join them, revealing Monday that he will co-sponsor the bill in an interview with NJTV. “I’m signing onto Medicare-for-all, which I’m excited to do this week,” Booker said.

“You should not be punished because you are working-class or poor and be denied health care. I think health care should be a right to all,” Booker said in the interview. “This is something that’s got to happen. Obamacare was a first step in advancing this country, but I won’t rest until every American has a basic security that comes with having access to affordable health care.”

In a statement, Merkley said, “Health care should be a right for every single American, not a privilege reserved for the healthy and the wealthy.”

He said moving to a single-payer program would “simplify health care and lower patients’ costs.”

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Comments

Lower patients’ costs. And how much more will my taxes cost me? Look for the bait and switch to regularly show up when the cost of this program gets glossed over.

“I think health care should be a right to all,” Booker said
_______________________

I think free nice houses, free nice cars, free good food, free pretty clothes, and free sparkly ponies should be a right to all!

Problem is, who is going to pay for it all?

Does old Bernie know that the government estimates that there is more than $30 billion worth of fraud, every year, in Medicare as it is currently configured?

That’s just the amount of fraud the government is actually able to detect; the real amount of fraud is probably several times that.

But yeah, let’s make Medicare even bigger! Think of all the new opportunities for fraud and graft!

If single payer passes there will be no “wealthy”… or at least the ability to create and acquire it…. as for only for the healthy.. that one will be assured as social Darwinism will winnow out the chronically sick and elderly. What the Left did with eugenics will be applied to those too “marginal” to contribute to their own care.

ObamaCare beat up on the middle class. They created the mess with a promise to save it with a bigger mess.

Churchill noted that socialism allows equally shared misery.

    LibraryGryffon in reply to alaskabob. | September 13, 2017 at 4:58 pm

    Look up “Complete Lives” as proposed by several folks including Ezekiel Emanuel. The editorial in the Lancet is discussed here: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/04/ezekiel_emmanuels_reaper_curve.html.

    The alleged reasoning is to spend scarce resources on those most likely to go on and live a “complete life”. The problem is, that basically it means only spending money on those likely to continue working and paying taxes. Once you hit 65, take a pain pill, no hip replacement for you!

      Wow! The individual exists to fund the state and for a brief time be allowed enough health care to continue on until stipulated obsolescence. Physicians would weigh this against cost of continuance of life. This guy would have fit in so well with the Social Darwinists of the 1930’s…. in our old friends Germany and Russia. No “master race” … just survival of the fittest. And is the physician supposed to tell the patient the “pill” prescribed will be the last pill they will ever take?

we should put Senator Bob Menendez (sp?) in charge of Medicare.

So it’s Red Bernie’s bill.

Good. I was concerned that a Dem might introduce this disaster. Certainly not Warren or Harris—they’re both loud, but neither has an ounce of leadership potential; they’re both followers only. But some other Dem might have stepped up and inflicted this on us.

But coming from Bernie, it’s clearly a Communist plan. And in America that still gets it automatic bad PR.

Maybe the R’s could push the idea that it’s a Russian plot (although in reality even the Russians have abandoned that rubbish). That would capitalize on all the work the D’s have put into whipping up paranoia about Russian “interference” in American affairs.

Let the rationing begin!

It already has

No, health care is not a right, it is an earned privilege.

Let’s talk about individual dignity and intrinsic value of human life. Perhaps we can compromise and figuratively cut the baby in half. Reject progressive diversity (e.g. institutional racism, sexism). Close the abortion chambers and Planned Parenthood, too. Deny political congruences (i.e. “=”) and other pro-choice doctrines and policies.

Do it for the People and our Posterity. You know, the two named parties to The Constitution.

    tom swift in reply to n.n. | September 14, 2017 at 2:37 am

    Health care is a product, like anything else mass-produced by the modern economy. It consumes resources—materials and labor—to manufacture and distribute. These are costs which have to be paid by somebody.

Oh, and address progressive costs, before implementing redistributive change, which is a first-order forcing of catastrophic anthropogenic economic misalignment.

[This is a repost of what I just posted on the other Bernie/Medicare thread] prior to seeing this thread.]

Medicare as it currently exists has three primary components: Part A, Part B and Part D.

Part A covers hospitalization, i.e., just the cost of occupying a hospital bed exclusive of any medical procedure or medication. Only three days of keeping your butt in the bed are paid by MediCare with the patient responsible for the cost for days in excess of three.

Part B covers medical procedures which are anything from a routine doctor’s office visit to major heart or brain surgery. The patient is responsible for 20% co-pay of all Part B costs.

Part D covers prescription drugs. Medicare DOES NOT pay for prescription drugs obtainable through a retail pharmacy (Walgreen’s, etc.). Specialty pharmacy drugs, such as chemo drugs or those used to treat HIV are administered in conjunction wi5h a medical procedure and are paid for under Part B.

There are private insurance plans, called Medigap policies, to cover the Part A hospital bed occupancy beyond three days; the 20% Part B co-pay, and prescription drugs under Part D. The is a Part C Medigap policy which combines Parts A, B and D but administered as an HMO where one is assigned a PCP, can only obtain care from network doctors, and must obtain PCP referral to see specialist. Part A and B Medigap policies allow one to see the doctor of their choice.

Overall, a Medigap policy is very, very inexpensive provided one obtains it at the mandatory age of concurrently with signing up with Medicare. Talk of seniors having to choose between buying their medication or food is disingenuous at best. A Part D policy timely obtained is under $400 annually. With Part D coverage a 30-90 day supply of most retail pharmacy prescriptions is only $1 or $2. Similarly, a timely obtained Part A/Part B policy is under $1200 annually. Social security benefits obtained at full retirement age should be more than adequate to cover these amounts.

This begs the question, if a person cannot afford even these minimal amounts plus those for basic necessities, how have they been paying for food clothing and housing up to mandatory MediCare age. Have they been on public assistance and Medicaid or have they just failed to plan adequately for their own security in old age.

    LibraryGryffon in reply to MadisonS. | September 13, 2017 at 5:03 pm

    Remember that there are quite a few of us who had good jobs until sometime after ’09. Losing over half the family income for four years will pretty much deplete any savings.

    At this point, my husband and I are both assuming that we’ll have to work until we die. Here’s hoping I find some soon. Retirement? What’s that?

      And this is where that magic phrase “or have they just failed to plan adequately for their own security in old age” rears its ugly head. It’s apparently your failure for lacking the perspicacity to work in a field which is immune from the vicissitudes of economics. Or perhaps your failure to guarantee your good health all the way to retirement age. Disabled by autoimmune diseases? Coronary artery disease? Endless cancer treatments? You should have adopted a “healthy lifestyle”—or so the know-it-alls will tell you.

    tom swift in reply to MadisonS. | September 13, 2017 at 5:06 pm

    Social security benefits obtained at full retirement age should be more than adequate to cover these amounts.

    Which seems to be what Bernie is claiming; just not limited to retirees.

    Except that Medicare does not work as the theory says it should. Most ominous is that it simply stops paying when the government decides it’s paid enough for that year. This is fobbed off as nothing serious, just another “gap”. But the costs to the patient can be considerable.

    Part A, Part B and Part D – and now ‘Part E:’ your funeral expense, after Bernie Parts A, B, C and D kill you.

Federal law does not require insurance companies to sell Medigap policies to people under 65. That means that people who are disabled, including those with end stage renal disease (ESRD) can be and often are denied supplemental coverage. There are many basic services that Medicare doesn’t pay for such as eye care, dental care, foot care, long term care and most forms of skilled nursing care. Medicare recipients must pay an additional premium for prescription drug coverage above the $134 a month basic fee. The nationwide average is $35 a month but cost vary considerably from state to state and plan to plan. The formulary is limited so many drugs must be paid for entirely out of pocket and those that are not require tiered copays. There is no yearly out of pocket maximum for for Medicare beneficiaries.

Most retirees do not know the limitations they will face when they transition from private healthcare plans to Medicare or how much the program actually cost. Premiums are rising very quickly, easily outstripping the cost of living adjustments. So you can start out being able to pay your bills and end up having to choose between rent and food. Many senior citizens deal with this by selling off assets and then applying for public assistance. But there is an entire generation of working adults out there who are paying to take care of both their children and their parents. They’re referred to as the sandwich generation.

The bottom line is that Medicare is going bust. That is considering that it only pays out to people over 65-67 who have paid in their entire working lives. That said, if it’s going bust with those who have paid into it their working lives, what will happen when new borns, as well as all of the unemployed, get to use it too? Where is the money going to come from? Just like the liar obama said many hundreds of times, “If you like your doctor you can keep him” and “The ACA will save the average family of four $2500 per year”. With that kind of lying from the leader of our country, what can we expect from a Socialist like Sanders?

I was told that if I liked my doctor, I could keep my doctor. My doctor doesn’t accept medicare patients. Sad!

But I’m not worried… I know Trump will work out a great deal with Nancy and Chuck. This won’t be some cheesy Canada style healthcare program, this will be the best single payer program ever!

    You didn’t quite catch the full obama quote: “If you like your doctor, you can keep the memory of your doctor.”

    Any ‘deal’ Trump will work out Crazy Pelosi and Up-Chuck Schumer will be due to the GOPe’s attempts at sabotaging Trump (and us.)

    Starve and then vote the GOPe out of existence.

    tom swift in reply to coolway. | September 14, 2017 at 2:48 am

    Well, Trump can’t work anything out with Mitch and Paul. They’ve already made it clear that they either can’t or won’t deliver on much of anything.

    So, next best is to work with whoever can deliver.

    Not ideal, but it beats watching the ship of state drift onto the rocks as Mitch and Paul keep the legislature paralyzed.

    Of course it’s possible that the two of them might get religion when they see that they’re not the only game in town. Then they might actually wake up and show some signs of life. But I wouldn’t want to count on it. Lethargy bordering on mummification seems to be a way of life in much of Washington.