Listen to “Medicare for All = End of Health Care Choice” on Spreaker.
House Democrats are now formally pushing the “Medicare for All Act of 2019,” which would put an end to private health insurance, but a leading health policy expert is warning that government-run health care is more of a nightmare than a dream come true when it comes to your health care options and access to prompt care.
Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner says this is the Democrats’ version of repeal and replace, noting they are not trying to shore up the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, but are instead blowing it up in favor of a government-run health system. She says eliminating private health insurance only weakens the consumer.
“You wind up eliminating choice. Your only choice is the plan that the government offers,” said Turner.
The plan Democrats say they all want is put all Americans into the Medicare program, which currently provides care for Americans 65-years-old and older. But Turner says Medicare won’t look the same when you throw more than 300 million people into it.
“If you have all Americans on Medicare at rates that are often below the cost of physicians providing that care, you’re also going to change the program for 60 million Americans on Medicare, who are going to have a much harder time finding a physician to see them,” said Turner.
Turner says the program will essentially become Medicaid for All, meaning the poor reimbursement rates for physicians will lead to fewer doctors staying on the job and seeing fewer and fewer patients. She says some doctors now only get a few cents for treating Medicaid patients.
If government-run care were to become law, Turner says lobbyists would be flooding Washington to make sure their particular treatment is covered.
“We think we have lobbyists here now. Wait until everyone being paid in the health care system has to argue to have their service included in this one government-run plan,” said Turner.
Listen to the full podcast to hear Turner explain why hospitals could close for months at a time each year if the U.S. adopts a single-payer system and why cancer patients and other people with major health problems would suffer the most.
