Elizabeth Warren is for single payer, sort of. And against healthcare profiteering...sort of.

[sheshe2]

Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to supporters last week announcing that she's co-sponsoring Bernie Sanders' Medicare for All bill and asking recipients to sign on as "citizen-co-sponsors."

That's interesting, as Warren herself does not sound exactly all-in.   My emphasis below:

I believe it’s time to take a step back and ask: what is the best way to deliver high quality, low cost health care to all Americans? Everything should be on the table – and that’s why I’m co-sponsoring Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All bill that will be introduced later this month 

Warren is for putting Bernie's bill on the table -- not necessarily for passing it. There's more hedging near the bottom of the letter:

Medicare for All is one way that we can give every single person in the country access to high quality health care. Everyone is covered. Nobody goes broke paying a medical bill. Families don’t have to bear the costs of heartbreaking medical disasters on their own.

As Harold Pollack and Ron Pollack (no relation) have recently reminded us, single payer is indeed "one way" to get to universal coverage -- and many countries with successful healthcare systems have gotten there by other means. Unlike existing single payer systems, moreover (and very unlike U.S. Medicare), Bernie's bill calls for zero cost-sharing from patients, whereas Warren's language suggests that she seeks a system where no one "goes broke" or bears the full brunt of major healthcare costs -- not one where citizens pay no out-of-pocket costs. To co-sponsor a bill is not necessarily to support its becoming law, as the many sponsors of the creative but disruptive 2008 Wyden-Bennett bill, which would have ended employer-sponsored healthcare, can attest.

snip

The American people have made it clear that they believe health care is a basic human right – but it will be a tough fight. The giant insurance and drug companies will send out their army of lobbyists to fight our Medicare for All bill every step of the way. Sign up now to join our fight and become a citizen co-sponsor of Medicare for All and fight back.

More: http://xpostfactoid.blogspot.com/2017/09/elizabeth-warren-is-for-single-payer.html

My Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of our most Progressive Senators, she is right, it is now on the table for all Democrats to decide the best way forward. This is what we do, put our heads together and weigh what will be best for all Americans.

We have a plan and she admits none of this will be easy, however a majority in 2018 could make it work and a Democrat in office can make it so. We have our work cut out for us, yes we do. GOTV 2018/2020!

PS...her letter is posted here.

https://www.vox.com/2017/9/7/16266294/elizabeth-warren-bernie-sanders-single-payer

[NastyRiffraff]

1. It seems Elizabeth is open to many options

and health care systems that will achieve a goal of affordable coverage for all. Whether that's single payer, or another workable system, eyes should be on that goal, not one system alone.

Single payer should be on the floor (although Bernie's idea of it being free for all is probably unworkable). But I think it should be the START of a vigorous health care debate.

[sheshe2]

4. This is a fantastic start, NR.

It is on the table and many brilliant minds are going to be discussing this. However 2018/2020 are crucial. We need to come together from all sides or none of it will work.

[greeny2323]

2. Options

You do realize there are differing opinions in progressive circles about the best way to provide health care for everyone, right? Simply turning on Medicare for everyone like a light switch isn't easy, and may not be the best approach.

[sheshe2]

6. I am pretty sure I never said that in my OP.

greeny2323
2. Options

You do realize there are differing opinions in progressive circles about the best way to provide health care for everyone, right? Simply turning on Medicare for everyone like a light switch isn't easy, and may not be the best approach.

In fact I know I did not. Please do not switch my words around. I stated myself clearly.

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. Good for her, and I hope folks take NOTICE of how she is qualifying what she is saying

for good reason, the same way certain other politicians have or do.

It is important to set a clear goal, even if it is barely achievable AS LONG as one also is honest about how tough the fight will be and how likely it is that it WONT happen at least not right away or the first try.

Will it happen eventually? It better, and this is certainly the way to start to get there, but I hope if she and Bernie and others are NOT successful neither they or others will take that as complete defeat.

In fact, if they want some insight on how to set a goal and work toward it for 25 years, even against all odds, they could look here


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_health_care_plan_of_1993

[sheshe2]

9. They will not take it as defeat...

Will it happen eventually? It better, and this is certainly the way to start to get there, but I hope if she and Bernie and others are NOT successful neither they or others will take that as complete defeat.

Thanks for your link. Clinton...and Conyers too have been working tirelessly for years. Largely ignored, yet never faltered in their beliefs.

[Eliot Rosewater]

11. It seems that the demand for massive change in a quick manner is the

meme of the day, so I dont know if many understand how long it actually takes for "change"

Thus the "this is a big fucking deal" Joe Biden. And yet it wasnt good enough for many, was it!

[leftstreet]

5. It's gaining co-sponsors. They'll all be making stmts soon

:large

Just glad it's on the table

[sheshe2]

7. I am glad it is on the table as well.

Conyers has been trying for it for 14 years.

Half a century ago, addressing the convention of the Medical Committee for Human Rights, Martin Luther King Jr. declared, "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."
I strongly agree with Dr. King, which is why I have been a firm supporter of President Obama’s landmark Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA has resulted in 17.6 million uninsured people gaining health coverage as the law’s coverage, and minorities have seen the largest increase in insurance coverage: About four million Latino adults gained coverage, an 11.5% drop in the uninsured rate, while nearly three million African-Americans gained insurance, a 10.3% reduction. Another seven million white adults became insured, representing a 6% drop. 

But there is still much more to be done to eliminate injustice in health care in the United States, while making our system more cost-efficient. The United States still spends almost twice as much per person on health care as any other country, yet our key outcomes – life expectancy, infant mortality and preventable deaths – too often lag behind our peers. A recent Commonwealth Fund study ranked the U.S. healthcare system dead last among 11 highly developed countries in terms of quality, efficiency and access to health care.

That is why I am leading the charge in the House of Representatives for single-payer, universal healthcare system.  By implementing a “Medicare for All" system – the standard for health care throughout the industrialized world – we can achieve hundreds of billions of dollars in cost savings that can be used to cover the nation's remaining uninsured and upgrade coverage for millions of underinsured citizens.  More and more people across the country understand that a single-payer healthcare system is the only way to guarantee quality care and at the same time reduce medical costs. A poll from [date] showed that more than half of Americans -- including 80 percent of Democrats and a quarter of Republicans -- support expanding health reform to "Medicare for All."

That is why I have introduced my bill, The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, in every Congress since 2003. It is co-sponsored by more than 50 Members of Congress and support continues to grow. 

https://conyers.house.gov/issues/health-care

[pnwmom]

8. She's more strategic than most of her critics. She doesn't want to set things up

so that if, instead of single payer, we succeed in adding a public option to the ACA -- an OPTION, for anyone who wants it -- that that's considered a FAILURE.

[sheshe2]

13. Every incremental step forward we make it important.

No one should believe it will happen overnight and no one should believe this should be easy. This is going to take time and the way forward is with all of us working together.

Concessions will have to me made...a public option in ACA IMHO would be a huge step forward. I sure as hell do not want the baby to be tossed out with the bathwater. I will take what we can get every step of the way.

[comradebillyboy]

10. I don't understand the obsession with single payer.

France, Germany and Switzerland have excellent universal health care and they don't have single payer systems. I'm on medicare. It's nice but in order to have adequate coverage I also purchased a supplemental insurance plan from Blue Cross. So maybe medicare isn't a pure single payer system either.

Right now "Medicare For All' is just a slogan with no substance on how it can ever be implemented or paid for. People who already have health insurance don't want their plans fucked with by the government. Bernie's 'plan' will be even more unpopular than the Pukes repeal of Obamacare .

[msongs]

12. poeople relate to medicare for all. single payer is too abstract. universal health care

is the goal. low cost is the requirement

[MichMan]

14. Step towards single payer, but needs to be realistic at the same time

Medicare for All is a great talking point, but unclear how it will be presented to voters.

The current Medicare system requires people pay in for 40 years or so in payroll taxes before drawing any benefits. It also still charges monthly premiums, and many still buy supplementary private insurance.

Proposals that state that everyone is eligible at any age with no premiums, deductibles or co pays, plus adding dental, vision, hearing and mental health benefits on top of that are going to be really difficult to fund depending on the CBO scoring. I remember that the ACA included all kinds of other things like student loans and reporting of all business to business transactions > $400 to off set some of the costs.

[George II]

15. Medicare doesn't necessarily require people to pay in for 40 years, just during the years....

....that they worked.

My mother left work in her early 20s to raise six children. She returned to work in her late 40s and then went on Medicare when she was 65.

[gyroscope]

17. France is single payer

The French health care system is one of universal health care largely financed by government national health insurance. In its 2000 assessment of world health care systems, the World Health Organization found that France provided the "close to best overall health care" in the world.[1] In 2011, France spent 11.6% of GDP on health care, or US$4,086 per capita,[2] a figure much higher than the average spent by countries in Europe but less than in the US. Approximately 77% of health expenditures are covered by government funded agencies.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_France

Single-payer (like Medicare) is simply health insurance that is provided by the government.
Your healthcare is provided by the private sector, and your taxes pays for it.

That's basically how it should be defined for the public. Simple enough for Americans to understand.
Your healthcare is not provided by the government. It is paid for by the government.

In the UK healthcare is actually delivered by the government, but that is not single payer.

[comradebillyboy]

18. Except for the 23% of costs not covered

by the government insurance. Need a heart bypass or long term dialysis and you'll be bankrupt on what the "single Payer' doesn't pay.

[gyroscope]

20. No system is perfect

Medicare doesn't pay 100% either. I don't think perfection is possible to achieve in any system.

but having 80% of your medical needs covered is better than nothing. if single payer covered 99% there will still be people who complain about the lack of coverage ("but it only covers 99% so we cant have it!" ).

when your basic medical needs are taken care of you have better health as a result and your chances of ever needing something as serious as bypass surgery goes way down. in single payer countries prevention is emphasized over treatment. but our for-profit system doesn't pay much attention to prevention because treatment is so much more profitable, particularly with high dollar major surgical treatments, chemo, etc.

[JI7]

16. She probably wants to see details . Especially costs

[Jamaal510]

19. K&R