| Back to... |
Share Our Stories! - Click Here |
 |
Most House Democrats Support Medicare for All |
| By
Stephen Lendman |
| Healthcare is a fundamental human right - not a commodity to be sold for
maximum profits, based on the ability to pay, the deplorable way America’s
system works. On January 24, Rep. John Conyers introduced HR 676: Expanded & Improved Medicare For All Act. Referred to committee for consideration, it calls for providing “comprehensive health insurance coverage for all United States resident, improved health care delivery, and for other purposes.” The measure has a record number of co-sponsors - 104, including 28 new ones in April, all Democrats, no Republicans. If enacted, it would achieve about $500 billion in annual administrative savings. It would immediately cover all uninsured American citizens, none excluded. It would achieve Trump’s rhetorical goal of greater coverage, better benefits and lower costs - a win for all Americans except for the following: Predatory industry profiteers oppose it. So do their House and Senate allies along with Trump - fundamentally against equitable, affordable universal healthcare. According to Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) president Dr. Carol Paris, Americans are fed up with an inhumane, profit-driven health system that leaves millions without care.” “Quality health care is not a luxury, nor is it a commodity that can be bought and sold in a marketplace. It is a social good that can be best delivered through a single-payer national health program.” Most Americans support it. Momentum builds for it, Paris added. “Now is the time” to enact the only equitable system. Proposed Trumpcare is an abomination, worse than initially introduced in revised form - costing more, providing much less. It lets states opt out of federal mandates at their discretion, permits insurers to charge elderly Americans and ones with pre-existing conditions much higher premiums. They could exclude essential services from coverage, including maternity care and expensive treatments for various illnesses, diseases and injuries. Subsidies for low-income households would be slashed, making vital healthcare unaffordable for millions. Currently under Obamacare, 19 states refused to expand Medicaid even though most costs are federally funded. According to the American Medical Association, Trumpcare 2.0 “could effectively make coverage completely unaffordable to people with pre-existing conditions.” So far, Republicans haven’t enough House vote to pass it. No vote is planned this week. “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane,” Martin Luther King stressed. US administrations and most congressional members oppose assuring all Americans have access to affordable healthcare. Universal, government-sponsored single-payer coverage is the only equitable system - no others. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. |