Medicare for All Means Private Insurance for None

File under: healthcare in the 2020 debates

Hunt Lawrence and Daniel J. Flynn at The Spectator have a good analysis of the "Medicare For All" proposals supported by, so far, five of the Democrats who have announced they’re running:

Democratic candidates call healthcare a right in mantra-like fashion. Gillibrand, for instance, insisted “health care must be a right, not a privilege” at the rally last week reintroducing the Medicare for All bill. But in what kind of a country do you get to exercise a right only through the government?

Imagine if in affirming a right to free speech one added the caveat that one could communicate only through government-run publications, websites, and broadcast stations. Or, if the freedom of religion found expression only through the one true church established by the state. Or, if the right to transportation meant solely a ride on a smelly, sweaty city bus.

This makes a farce of any sane understanding of rights, as does the notion of a “right” to healthcare exercised through insuring that nobody possesses the right to obtain healthcare save from the state.

This all seems the stuff of Five Year Plans and Great Leaps Forward. Yet, five major presidential candidates — Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Kirsten Gillibrand — serve as sponsors in the Senate of the Medicare for All bill. The proposed legislation makes it “unlawful” for “a private health insurer to sell health insurance coverage that duplicates the benefits provided under this Act” and for “an employer to provide benefits for an employee, former employee, or the dependents of an employee or former employee that duplicate the benefits provided under this Act.”

. . .

As government’s role in healthcare expanded through such programs designed to relieve patients of financial burdens as Medicare Part D’s prescription drug subsidies and Obamacare, a funny thing happened: Prices skyrocketed. Rather than admitting that past panaceas did not do as promised, their backers insist that we do what failed only at increased levels.

. . .

Banning private insurance may prove a winning formula in a Democratic primary. But in a presidential contest, where pragmatism beats ideological purity, promising to take away the existing health insurance of most Americans seems as much a loser politically as it does as policy.

Government-run healthcare means no competition. Higher prices. Rationing. We have all seen what government-run healthcare looks like – and not just Obamacare. There’s the Veteran’s Administration hospitals (a 2017 report is here) and Indian reservations’ healthcare (a 2018 report is here). Full report at The Spectators is here.

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Obamacare Repeal? Here we go again.

art credit: angry.net

Just before the Memorial Day weekend, The Spectator reported that

Obamacare Repeal Will Be Hard and McConnell Just Made It Harder

According to this report, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave RINOs … more reason to dig in their heels:

This week in an interview with Reuters he said, “I don’t know how we get to 50 [votes] at the moment. But that’s the goal. And exactly what the composition of that [bill] is I’m not going to speculate about because it serves no purpose.”

Let’s count the ways that remark is foolish.

First, it sends a signal to RINOs in the Senate like Bill Cassidy (R-Gutless) and Susan Collins (R-Weak Knees) that McConnell isn’t going to fight very hard to repeal Obamacare. Thus, they can be obstinate in their demands, knowing that McConnell will eventually give in.

Second, it boosts the morale of Obamacare proponents. For example, both Talking Points Memo and the Daily Kos could scarcely contain their glee in reporting McConnell’s remarks.

Finally, it discourages the Republican base. How many times has McConnell said repealing Obamacare was a top priority? In 2012, McConnell insisted he would repeal Obamacare if he became Senate Majority Leader. He reiterated those sentiments the following year when he told CPAC that Obamacare should be repealed “root and branch.” About a month after Trump won the election, McConnell said the “Obamacare repeal resolution will be the first item up in the New Year.” Now he is, in effect, saying, “Gosh, this is too hard.” That sends the message to the Republican base that he was never serious about Obamacare repeal to begin with. It’s not a good idea going into the 2018 election with Republican voters thinking, “Yep, Senate Republicans sold us out again.”

There is nothing wrong with admitting that repealing Obamacare is going to be difficult. You’d have to be sprinkling something pretty potent on your breakfast cereal to think otherwise. But McConnell needed to do so in such a way that rallies the base, lets RINOs know that they won’t have much leeway, and puts Democrats on the defensive.

The rest of the report is here. Main take-away: The GOP hides behind the label “Party of Stupid.” It's better than being exposed as the Party of “Bought” – as in “Uniparty.”

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