Medicare for All
I am not a knee jerk supporter of Medicare for All, because I see a lot of potential problems. That is not to say I wouldn't vote for it, but I want to see proof that it will really work, first.
Here are some known problems:
- People are afraid of being forced to change health plans.
- Medicare is very new in terms of a bureaucracy. A better example of how the federal government will deliver health care in the future is the VA hospital system: the VA system has been around long enough to have a real track record.
- The US is a lot larger than other countries using single payer systems. A single payer system in the US becomes an unaccountable behemoth (way worse than the VA hospital system).
- Medicare for All proponents claim it will fix everything by eliminating the corporate profits charged by the insurance companies. But largest insurer in the country is Blue Cross -- a non-profit corporation.
- Medicare still behaves like an insurance company: It doesn't fix the seriously broken payer/provider relationship. A fairly significant portion of a medical provider's staff is currently employed to fight with insurance companies in order to get paid. And a fairly significant portion of the insurance company staff is tasked with trying to find excuses to not pay the medical providers.
- A mass switchover to a Medicare for All plan would result in mass layoffs in every Congressional District in the country.