Medicare for All for Dummies – But everyone should read it.

There are so many claims, counter-claims, and outright lies about Medicare for All. We hope the following will make it simpler to understand.

by Jerry Manpearl & Nancy Niparko, MD Child Neurology & Epileptology

The Facts:

• “Medicare For All“/ “single-payer,” is a system to PAY for medical treatment, not to PROVIDE medical treatment.
• “Medicare For All” ALLOWS YOU CHOICE of doctors, providers, hospitals, and other medical services. Providers will accept your insurance. Just ask someone who’s on Medicare now.
• Under “Medicare For All” THE DOCTORS YOU CHOOSE WILL DECIDE what care you need — not the insurance company. The financial interest of the medical insurance company is to deny payment of your medical bills. The clerk at your medical insurance company has no medical training but has the power to deny you care.
• “Medicare For All” is LESS EXPENSIVE! You & your employer pay NO PREMIUMS for medical insurance or worker’s compensation, so you have no out-of-pocket and your employer can pay HIGHER SALARIES.
  Since YOU PAY NO PREMIUMS, NO CO-PAYS, and NO DEDUCTIBLES, even IF you have an increase of taxes, they will be much lower, because you will not be paying for insurance company executive’s multi-million dollar salaries, their shareholders’ profits and their bondholders.
• Who are the winners:– you, your family, your neighbors, your employers, your country, and a society that is healthier, happier, and more secure. Who are the losers: under “Medicare For All, — MEDICAL INSURANCE COMPANIES MAY GO OUT-OF-BUSINESS. They now take 20% – 40% of every dollar paid for health care. They pay huge salaries, huge dividends to shareholders, huge fees to lobbyists, huge advertising, hire hordes of clerks to find reasons to deny coverage — totaling several tens-of-billions of dollars every year TAKEN FROM YOUR HEALTH CARE.
• By contrast, Medicare administration costs 2-3%. And Medicare Advantage administration about 7-9%. The government will NOT be bankrupted by Medicare to cover the rest of us!
• Every other industrialized country has some form of “Medicare For All,” and BETTER HEALTH CARE out-comes.
• Under “Medicare For All,” EVERYONE IS COVERED, paid by the government, not you or your employer. Therefore, if you lose your job, or if you change jobs, you will not lose medical coverage. There is nothing to prevent you from buying private medical insurance. It is just that there is no need.
• Under “Medicare-for-all” NO AMERICAN WILL GO BANKRUPT, HOMELESS, BECOME MORE ILL, HANDICAPPED OR DIE BECAUSE OF MEDICAL DEBT. We will have a healthier & wealthier society.
• If you doubt any of this, ask your elders who are on Medicare.

Next The Lies:

• The government chooses your doctors NOT TRUE. Under Medicare For All, you chose your doctors, your providers, and your hospitals.
• Medicare For All would bankrupt the country. Lie. The insurance companies rake off the top billions and billions. Presently Medicare administration costs are about 2-3%. (compared to 15%-30% by private insurers)
• There are tales of persons in other countries waiting weeks or months for non-emergency surgeries. IN THE USA, YOU WAIT to get medical tests, scans or surgeries……YOU WAIT for red tape, you wait for pages & pages of applications to be filled out, and you wait for approval by medical insurance company clerks. Often you wait much longer than those in other civilized countries. (You wait, and wait, and wait, often when it is urgent.)

The Certainty:

• The health care industry will spend whatever it takes to stop MEDICARE FOR ALL. THEY will spend billions to mislead you, to lie to you and to deceive you.
• They stand to lose billions and even trillions.
• THEY WILL FIGHT TO YOUR LAST MEDICAL PREMIUM.

We hope that you share the information provided in this short primer. Please share widely because those who are intent on continuing the pilfering have the mainstream media, print, and broadcast who are intent on misinforming you hoping that will sour to a program that is not only more efficient but will save thousands of lives.

It is the responsibility of all of us to do our part to ensure we win. It is also our responsibility to ensure that politicians that are found to be misleading us or at the service of those attempting to mislead us are not elected.