Free Republic

Most Dems support M4A, but it wasn't enough of an issue by itself to get someone the nomination. Trump actually did something yet the media attacks him anyway. Where Is Biden? Biden says he support the ACA, which many Dems, white or black, say is pro-Big Pharma and the HC industry; they say this. So then Biden should support M4A, right, to maximize true blue base turnout and be against "corporate greed"? BLM has said they support M4A to help the quality of black lives, so where are they on this? In addition to this, unlike Trump's First Step Act...

It may seem counterintuitive, but single-payer health care proposals like Medicare for All could very well destroy Medicare as we know it and jeopardize medical care for seniors. It’s not just because single-payer systems like those in Britain and Canada hold down costs by limiting the availability of doctors and treatments, even for the most serious life-threatening diseases like cancer, brain tumors and heart disease. And it’s not just because single-payer systems restrict access to the newest drugs for cancer and other serious diseases, sometimes for years, compared with the United States system. Or that single-payer systems have shown to...

When Democratic front-runner Bernie Sanders couldn't get the math on his healthcare plan to add up in Tuesday night's debate, he just resorted to lying. Sanders came under fire in the debate because he has proposed a plan to offer free insurance to all that would require a net of $32 trillion in new tax revenue, and yet, his proposed tax hikes, as sweeping as they are, would generate only $17.5 trillion, according to his campaign. That's a gap equivalent to about four years of the entire federal budget. In the midst of a contentious back-and-forth, Sanders eventually delivered the...

Has any question taken up more airtime at the Democratic debates than how to pay for Medicare for All? The question keeps being asked partly because multiple estimates have found that the single-payer plan, which would eliminate virtually all private health insurance, would require more than $30 trillion in additional government spending over a decade, a historically unprecedented sum. But it has also been a fixture because of the way it has caused candidates to stumble in revealing ways. No primary candidate is more closely associated with Medicare for All than the current front-runner and likely nominee Sen. Bernie Sanders...

LAS VEGAS — Senator Bernie Sanders is a longtime supporter of “Medicare for all.” “I wrote the damn bill,” he said on a debate stage last summer, and his support for universal health care has helped propel him to the front of the 2020 Democratic field. But in Nevada, where the race heads next, his signature policy is a liability with the largest labor union in the state. And the union has enthusiastic allies in Mr. Sanders’s opponents. On Friday morning, moments after Senator Amy Klobuchar finished a tour of the health care facility run by the culinary workers’ union,...

Whether we can use the results as legitimate or not, the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries showed one thing — progressive policies articulated by former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg are currently resonating with Democratic voters. But while he has surged in popularity over longtime Democrat party players, how would his policies play out nationally? Buttigieg has roughly outlined numerous platform policies, but the roughest right now is his health care plan: “Medicare for All Who Want It.” This idea is to offer a public option that will compete in the health care insurance market against employee sponsored...

Association of Flight Attendants President Sara Nelson criticized former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg Wednesday for a tweet defending private health insurance, that appeared to characterize the employer-provided health benefits as gains won by union workers. Buttigieg defended his proposed “Medicare for All Who Want It” plan, saying 14 million union members have “fought hard for strong employer-provided health benefits” in a tweet Wednesday morning. Nelson, who played a key role in ending the federal government shutdown last year, called the invocation of labor rights “offensive and dangerous.” “Stop perpetuating this gross myth. Not every union member has union...

The influential Culinary Union distributed a flier that says Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders would “End Culinary Healthcare” if elected president of the United States. The flier, obtained by CNN on Tuesday, outlines where the leading 2020 Democratic candidates stand on health care, immigration and “Good Jobs.” It singles out Sanders as the candidate who will end the union’s health care among the top six Democratic candidates, pointing to his “Medicare for All” plan. The release of the flier by the union, which is a force in Nevada politics, comes just a week and a half away from the Nevada caucuses....

According to analysis by the Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM), Medicare for all (M4A) could shrink U.S. GDP by as much as 24% by the year 2060, depending on how it is financed. Despite this hit to economic growth, the plan proposed by presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-VT) isn’t without benefits. According to the analysis, Medicare for all would improve population health overall, increasing life expectancy by roughly two years, grow the population of the United States by 3%, and boost worker productivity. The share of the population that is “seriously ill” would also decline, from 15% to 13%. But,...