Opinion: Medicare For All Saves Lives And $

This has been talked about since Harry Truman’s administration. John Kennedy wanted it.
Maybe Biden should promise people universal health care for vaccinations instead of $100.
Only Sen. Blumenthal supports M4A. The rest of the CT delegation is opposed.

That’s correct, Patricia, with the exception of Jahana Hayes (CT-05); she is the only one of our five members of the House of Representatives that supports M4A and is a current co-sponsor of H.R.1976 – Medicare for All Act of 2021. 

My Aunt and her family enjoys universal government single payor healthcare paid by the Canadian government, as does my uncle and his family in Sweden paid by the Swedish government. Both of them in the years that they have had citizenship there when they lost their jobs were given government paid job training and job placement in their fields of interest in areas which needed employees. Both enjoyed generous time off for the both of their children and for medical leave and for family care leave. Both have had access to quality free or affordable childcare and education for their children. Both enjoy a decent retirement without fear of how they are going to pay for their essential needs like shelter, food and healthcare including medicine, vision, dental and hearing care. Most developed countries enjoy access to these social safety net and support programs, it is way past time that the USA joins the countries that have these successful programs and develops an improved social support and safety net program of our own with our government negotiating fair prices so we stop overpaying for medicines and other medical services and devices.

@HeatherC
Canada has a population of 37.5 million people. The USA has 327 million people. California has a larger population than Canada. Medicare is mediocre at best and is terribly mismanaged. Medicare for all would be a disaster for all.

No one who has gotten through the application process for Medicare believes that anyone, let alone everyone, should be subjected to that cruel and unusual punishment. Not even Jeff Bezos should be forced to suffer that much.

Yeah, instead of “Increased Medicaid to Help People who Need It, Progressives, ahem, think that “Medicare for Jeff Bezos” is a better thing to do or maybe this is “Medicare for Privileged White Middle-Class Liberals.” and the only way to sell that is to pay for the MyPillow guy’s root canal,

Luckily, of course, to balance out Donald’s Trump Jr’s eyeglasses when he needs them we’ll also all be paying the next batch of pharmaceutical companies that figures out how to intentionally addict people to their products while we ignore the effects of that as we ignore them sleeping in doorways as we listen to “All of our representatives are helping other callers, your estimated wait time is until six or seven minutes after you’re dead.”

@Heather C:  Yes, US Medicare is not the model of universal healthcare we want. I still have to pay monthly for supplemental healthcare on a retirement income. M4A contemplates something similar to Canada’s system.
  The insurance and drug companies are big donors to our Congressional and presidential candidates, thus blocking what the majority of Americans want and need.
  To not have guaranteed healthcare in a pandemic guarantees a high death toll.

Question: I like the theory behind “Medicare for All” but the one thing that concerns me is, does the patient then still have freedom of choice regarding their treatment ??

Meaning – would “Medicare for All” bascially involve a whole network of doctors all tied together working for the state/medical industry following the established doctrine where the patient has no say in their treatment – or could one be independent of all that crap and see instead a doctor who practices Natural Medicine and Alternative/Eastern Medicine and still be covered ??

I ask because I have become completely disgusted with how the mainstream network medical establishment works in this country, where everything is all about MRI’s, surgery and prescription drugs, and have walked away from the standard U.S. medical practices and instead favor doctors who practice Natural and Alternative/Eastern Medicine, and before you ask yes, I gladly pay for everything out off pocket because it works.

While on this topic, if “Medicare for All” were to pass… I wonder if it would radically alter the current health trends in place.

One of my childhood dreams was to move to Canada, and today I really like how Canada never let their population get completely out of control and become unsustainable.

It’s a beautiful place, maybe my next life I will be able to settle there.

OhHum and other commenters- I agree our current Medicare parts A, B, D and Medicaid and Tricare programs are not anywhere near satisfactory, they don’t cover everything we need it to cover. That is why we need to look at the countries that have great track records on socialized single payor comprehensive healthcare and social safety net programs. There are countries that haven’t done it correctly, we should learn from their mistakes, but there are countries that for decades have provided an outstanding model that we should research and then develop a plan that works best for our country. But we should definitely remove private health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies and others from profiteering off our medical healthcare necessities.