Medicare for all a sore spot for several state Dems
California Sen. Kamala Harris, considered a rising Democratic contender in the 2020 presidential race, surprised, she said, even her staff, when she announced Wednesday she plans to co-sponsor Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare-for-all” bill.
The surprise announcement was the latest big-name endorsement for single-payer health care reform that seems to be sweeping the Democratic Party.
Sanders says he plans to introduce his bill in September and launch a campaign to promote the concept of Medicare for all, a national health care system that would replace private insurance. Harris joins prominent senators and possible presidential hopefuls like Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York in supporting Sanders’ plans.
More than half the Democrats in the House support a similar sweeping single-payer health care bill introduced by John Conyers of Michigan.
So how is it that not a single member of Connecticut’s delegation to the House has signed on for single-payer reform? The only Connecticut politician in Washington I could find who supports single payer is Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
In a recent column, consumerist Ralph Nader, noting that 85 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents support government responsibility for health insurance, said Connecticut’s all-Democratic House delegation “sticks out like a sore thumb” for not supporting what he called the “growing” movement. He noted their colleagues in Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee are co-sponsors of Conyers’ bill.
“I have asked several people in Connecticut, who are your voters, why you have taken your rejectionist stance,” Nader wrote, addressing Connecticut politicians. “Their responses boil down to one word: Aetna!”
Indeed, Aetna, the almost-still-Connecticut-based insurance giant, appears on lists of top contributors for at least half the Connecticut delegation, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
I put the question from Nader — “Let’s have the explanation come ... straight from you” — to members of the Connecticut delegation.
Rep. Joe Courtney was traveling and unavailable for comment, but his office sent links to legislation the 2nd District congressman introduced with Rep. John Larson that would allow older Americans, aged 50 to 64, to buy in to Medicare.
I missed a call back from Rep. Larson, but in a statement issued by his office he said that the Medicare buyin that he and Courtney proposed
would safeguard the advances made by the Affordable Care Act.
“Our proposal would lower costs, create an affordable buy-in option for Americans age 50 to 64, stabilize insurance markets, target fraud in our system and provide security and peace of mind for all Americans.”
Of course it also would not antagonize the state’s health insurance industry the way Medicare for all would.
Staff for Rep. Rosa DeLauro sent me a statement advocating changes to improve the Affordable Care Act. It ended by saying she was “studying expanding Medicare coverage to all Americans” without explaining whether that means all-in free Medicare coverage as proposed by Conyers and Sanders or a more limited buy-in.
I discovered this week that the press spokesman for Rep. Jim Himes does not use voicemail. He did not return a message taken reluctantly by a receptionist in the congressman’s office nor respond to an email asking about single-payer health care.
A spokesperson for Sen. Chris Murphy, noting that the text of Sanders’ bill is not yet available, sent along some quotes from things the senator has said about the topic, indicating he would support a buy-in for Medicare.
“Giving every person the choice to buy Medicare or keep the private insurance would allow people to decide which system they want to be in,” said the quote sent along by his staff.
That’s not likely to especially antagonize Aetna, which appears on the senator’s list of top contributors.
I heard back late in the day from Sen. Blumenthal, who said he has consistently supported single-payer health insurance. He hasn’t seen the language of Sanders’ bill, but he expects to support it in the same way as Sen. Harris.
“I have expressed support for similar measures in the past. I will be supporting it in Congress,” he said, unequivocally.
Blumenthal added that it may still be necessary to improve and stabilize the Affordable Care Act and bring down prescription drug prices before a single-payer system could be implemented.
The Sanders et al. solution to health care reform is big, complicated and expensive, but it is easy for voters to absorb and simple in the sense that it would put the American health system in line with much of the rest of the developed world.
You can also sell it with one simple slogan.
The Democrats who don’t sign on would be left to defend an Affordable Care Act that is sure to be starved and made into a complete failure by the Trump Administration and the Republican Congress before the next election.
I am disappointed that Connecticut Democrats are again eschewing the popular wisdom of Bernie Sanders the same way they all did when they filed aboard, bleating together, Hillary Clinton’s sinking ship.