Fifty years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill that created Medicare and ensured that senior citizens would never again have to go without life-saving medical care.
And now, it’s time to reboot – and use a very, very, very simple message so all Americans can understand it.
Let’s use Medicare, which nearly every American understands. Just create “Medicare Part E” where the “E” represents “everybody.” Just let any citizen in the US buy into Medicare.
It would be so easy. No need to reinvent the wheel with a so-called “public option” that would be a whole new program from the ground up. Medicare already exists. It works. Some people will like it, others won’t – but everyone will have access to affordable healthcare.
Just pass a simple bill – it could probably be just a few lines, like when Medicare was expanded to include disabled people – that says that any American citizen can buy into the program at a rate to be set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which reflects the actual cost for us to buy into it.
Thus, Medicare Part E would be revenue neutral!
To make it available to people of low income, Congress could raise the rates slightly for all currently non-eligible people (like me - under 65) to cover the cost of below-200%-of-poverty people. Revenue neutral again.
This would blow up all the rumors about death panels and grandma and everything else: everybody knows what Medicare is. Those who scorn it can go with United Healthcare and it’s $100 million/year CEO. Those who like Medicare can buy into Part E. Simplicity itself.
Of course, we’d like a few fixes, like letting negotiate drug prices, and fill some of the other holes Republicans and AARP and the big insurance lobbyists have drilled into Medicare so people have to buy “supplemental” insurance, but that can wait for the second round. Let’s get this done first.
Simple stuff. Medicare for anybody who wants it. Private health insurance for those who don’t. Easy message. Even Ted Cruz and Donald Trump can understand it. They can buy into it, or ignore it. No death panels, no granny plugs, nothing. Just a few sentences.
Replace the “you must be disabled or 65” with “here’s what it’ll cost if you want to buy in, and here’s the sliding scale of subsidies we’ll give you if you’re poor, paid for by everybody else who’s buying in.” This creates Part E.
And if this fails – if the Congress can’t get out from under their corporate overlords – at the very least they can pressure their Red state governors to expand Medicaid to all low-income Americans.
In the richest nation on Earth, it's unacceptable that anyone should be suffering without healthcare. Let's join every other developed nation on Earth and make healthcare a right - not a privilege.
