Medicareforall faces fierce resistance from insurers

WASHINGTON — Nearly every Democratic candidate for the White House, from the most progressive to the most conservative, are calling for changes to the nation’s health care system that would adversely impact Connecticut’s health insurers – and that industry is hitting back.

Joining forces with their longtime foe, the pharmaceutical industry, and with some of the biggest names in the health care industry, including the American Medical Association and the Federation of American Hospitals, the nation’s health insurers have joined a coalition that is fighting Medicareforall proposals

and other Democratic plans to alter the nation’s health care.

The Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, funded by the insurance industry and its allies, is running digital and television ads aimed at undermining support for Medicare

forall proposals and plans for a “public option,” a governmentrun health plan that would compete with private insurance plans.

The partnership was formed a little more than a year ago to protect the nation’s current health care programs, mainly the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid.

The organization’s executive director, Lauren Crawford Shaver, said diverse groups in the coalition found a common cause in 2017 — opposing an attempt by congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“We came together to protect the law of the land,” she said.

That battle was won. Coalition members deter

mined they should continue to band together to ward off other political dangers.

“There’s a lot of things we might fight about, but there’s a lot we can agree on,” Crawford Shaver said.

Last week’s presidential candidate debates underscored how important an issue heath care has become for Democrats.

Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts called for the United States to achieve Medicareforall through a singlepayer system, in which all Americans would be enrolled automatically in a government plan.

Warren was among several candidates at the debate who took aim at health insurers.

“These insurance compa

nies do not have a Godgiven right to make $23 billion in profits and suck it out of our health care system,” she said.

Others on the debate stage last week prefer a more modest approach, offering a “public option” or Medicare buyin plan that would allow Americans to purchase governmentrun coverage, but unlike Medicareforall would not eliminate the role of private insurers.

That split among Democrats also runs through Connecticut’s congressional delegation, with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, DConn., and Rep. Jahana Hayes, D5th District, endorsing Medicareforall plans and the other lawmakers supporting Medicare buyin or

public option plans.

The nation’s health insurers oppose all of the Democratic proposals discussed during the two nights of debates.

The insurers’ message is simple: The Affordable Care Act is working reasonably well and should be improved, not repealed by Republicans or replaced by Democrats with a big new public program. Further, they say, more than 155 million Americans have employersponsored health coverage and should be allowed to keep it.

Insurers also say that public option and Medicare buyin plans would lead the nation down the path of a onesizefitsall health care system run by bureaucrats in Washington D.C.