Medicare for all

As Democrats propose to make “Medicare for All” a single-payer system for our health care, we are starting to hear stories like these: Canada has a “single-payer system” and it works horribly. Medicare is “socialized” health insurance that will lead to a government takeover of health care. If Medicare becomes our single payer, it would correspondingly become our “single decider,” putting health decisions in the hands of heartless, mindless bureaucrats. Lastly, government is already too big and when government gets involved in anything, “it just messes things up.”

Really? Medicare has been here, operating and covering virtually every citizen older than 65 for the past 50 years and hasn’t taken over health care. Doctors and hospitals still operate as independent concerns. Ask any senior, and you will find almost all are delighted with the cost and the coverage Medicare provides them. Since under Medicare there is no “networks of doctors,” you can choose any doctor you want. Importantly, Medicare has the same “rules” everywhere so no bureaucrat can arbitrarily deny you coverage as insurance companies can and do. Medicare’s “one size fits all” system already serves over 46 million seniors and another 9 million disabled people from coast to coast. Maybe it’s time we take a hard look at the kind of insurance seniors have enjoyed since 1965. We just might find it to be better and less expensive than the complicated, profit-motivated system we have today.

A.A. Austin, Del City