Kaiser Health News Editor-In-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal hits the nail on the head. She points out the difficulties that Medicare for All presents in a very circumspect manner.
Rosenthal is the author of the book, “An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business And How You Can Take It Back.“
Death Panels again for Medicare for All?
MSNBC’s Ali Velshi, one of the few journalists on TV that does his best to present the data and conduct interviews in an unbiased manner, read a statement released by Tom Nickels, Executive Vice-President of the American Hospital Association (AHA) after Elizabeth Warren release her Medicare for All plan.
“A one size fits all approach like Medicare for All could disrupt coverage for more than 180 million Americans who are already covered through employer plans.” …
“It could hurt the ability of hospitals and health systems to keep pace with new, life-saving advances in medicine; invest in new payment and delivery models; and innovate and transform to meet the future need of patients.” …
“The government can be an unreliable business partner.”
Let’s be clear here. That was nothing but a word salad of no value. These companies only change health care payment and delivery models to maximize profits for the shareholders and increase bonuses for executives, period. There is absolutely nothing in Medicare for All that stops the advancement of science or innovation.
“These things speak to America’s fears,” Ali Velshi said after reading the statement from the AHA.
“Yes, they speak to Americans’ fears but they also speak to what likely is to be the biggest resistance which is our healthcare system and its prices,” Rosenthal said. “Basically saving money for patients means losing money for this system. So when Elizabeth Warren — one of the parts of the plan that hasn’t got a lot of attention today is that she is trying to peg prices to Medicare, 110%. Hospitals are going to say, ‘Oh my God, you know, people are gonna die.’ It’s the whole ‘death panels’ thing now. Where is ‘the reality?’ What’s the right price? I think that’s something she is now throwing down the gauntlet to America and the other candidates to say, ‘How much do we want to spend?’ So I think what she has done is ambitious. It’s admirable. It may be unrealistic in terms of both ‘passage and the numbers.’ But I am glad to see someone actually trying to make a case for something specific.”
It has already been proven that our current method of delivering healthcare is a failure. We pay the most and have the worst outcomes than most industrialized countries. If the private sector has been unable to get their act together for north of 30 years of pilfering Americans, there is no reason to believe they ever will.
The profit motive in health insurance and other portions of healthcare does not promote efficiency nor wellness. Our outcomes are probative. And stating that the government can be an unreliable partner was rather projective given the private sector’s unstable and fraudulent health care record.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. It is time to stop it, disregard those who took advantage of us for decades and adopt Medicare for All. They have stolen enough!
Viewers are encouraged to subscribe and join the conversation for more insightful commentary and to support progressive messages. Together, we can populate the internet with progressive messages that represent the true aspirations of most Americans.
We must be brave as consumers not afraid of change that will meet the needs in health care for all. A form of health care that only provides for part of the population to receive it and according to so many standards of what coverage they will receive must stop. Everyone should be entitled to a healthcare system that will have us all covered and meet the needs of individuals and families to have the care their medical diagnoses warrant as well as all follow up care needed including mental health to meet the stresses that are so prevalent today. With the changing employment scene over decades it’s imperative that we have coverage that follows without interruption of any kind. This will give a stability in our country that we have never had before especially given the past 3 years of broken promises in this health area from our present administration. ITS TIME FOR A BIG CHANGE. Elizabeth’s Warren’s plan would provide this as well as her dedication to taking our country to a new level of HOPE in our futures and of generations to come.
Janice, thank you for that comment. We need everyone to feel empowered and understand they are deserving and meritorious of everything you state above.
I was banned by a SUPPOSED Democratic &
Liberal/Progressive Facebook page titled The People vs. Donald Trump. I called the administrator & some members out because they bashed Bernie Sanders & Elizabeth Warren as much as they bashed our resident evil disaster Donald Trump. We are destined for 4 more years of a miserable nightmare with such divisiveness within the Democratic Party ranks & such vitriol against progressive candidates & some of their policies that polls show most Americans favor. Corporate Dems & the mainstream media should be ashamed for joining our corporate oligarchy led by dark political money a la Trump & the GOP in their fight against fairness for a democracy & capitalism that works for ALL Americans. Please stand up & be outraged & fight like never before. The future of a government of the people, by the people & for the people is at the brink of perishing from the earth!!?
You are absolutely correct.
For decades (forever!) we’ve been told to let the ‘free market’ take control of our society, and that our social needs will be sufficiently met by meager crumbs and ‘charity’. Trumpism is the ultimate expression of this philosophy. ‘We the people’ selected Trump because collectively, we’ve been conditioned to reject radical change.
Yet radical change is necessary. Medicare for all is such change. ‘We the people’ need to stop being so chickenshit about our political power and DEMAND such change. All of America’s power resides in her citizens. All of OUR power sits in the voting booth. Only we can bring the for-profit medical industry to heel.
If you’re a web designer, perhaps you could do something about the trendy practice of using a light-grey font against a white background. Ageism.
I was very heartened to see the comments that followed mine so far. I hope for more to follow. We must be involved in whatever way we can to help bring about positive and influencing change. I belong to 3 different Indivisible groups which keeps me busy because they offer a diversity of actions that are geared to my progressive to liberal bent as well as my Dem party which is more of a mixture. As an example: Over the past several weeks I have been hub-dialing on my computer and phone dialing in states other than my own to patch thru citizens to their Rep. senators where we might have a chance to change their minds @ their vote for Impeachment. I am retired, so make the time to do the prep, and those willing, to patch them thru to their Sen. office to make a statement in their own words or leave the office no. to do it at another time. This gives me great satisfaction because I feel I’m contributing for those whose lives don’t enable them to participate in such a way.I now live in a Red state, SC whose Senators are Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott. Graham’s reputation now is anathema to me. But he hears from me on a regular basis and I helped garner with others 850 signatures(mixed parties)to get him to hold a Town Hall which he refused to do. We held it anyhow with a cardboard cutout, news and TV coverage and questions from the audience. I’m proud to say we now have a Dem Rep. for the first time in over 40 yrs. from our District, Joe Cunningham- PEOPLE MADE THIS HAPPEN-