Tempted to jump on the bandwagon of Medicare for All? Well, you know what they say, "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me." Just like the Affordable Care Act, Medicare for All preserves by law the inequities of our health CARE system by preserving inequities in our health INSURANCE system.
Currently, Congress gets a pretty sweet deal, superior benefits coverage reducing the amount they spend to use their health insurance AND premiums paid for by taxpayers upwards of 72 percent, reducing the amount they spend to obtain health insurance compared to the people they're supposed to represent. Now for those who want to immediately jump in and defend this public employee perk for Congress, we've heard it all before thanks to the Obamacare con.
Flashback: There was a tiny outcry by people subjected by our lawmakers to Obamacare who weren't among the minority of Americans who benefited from the insurance exchange plans made available to individuals based on income or didn't become eligible for expanded Medicaid, two distinct and separate parts of Obamacare. At that time, Congress neatly carved out an exemption for itself, though they'd double-talk and lecture the rest of us on how it wasn't truly an exemption, they just happened to pass laws that their employer (the federal government) would provide them with cushy benefits and premiums artificially lowered by contributions by us, the taxpayer.
Flash Forward: Like the sounds of Medicare for All? Guess what, Congress again will preserve its superior benefits for a taxpayer funded price under that law too. Go take a peek at section 701 under the proposed Medicare for All, "There are hereby appropriated to the Trust Fund for each fiscal year, beginning with the first fiscal year beginning on or after the effective date of benefits under section 106, the amounts that would otherwise have been appropriated to carry out the following programs: …
(C) The Federal employees health benefit program, under chapter 89 of title 5, United States Code."
Now, perhaps you think that sounds great, the Federal employees health benefit program funds will be put into the Medicare for All trust, but the Obamacare loophole for calling the Federal government an employer and thereby effectively exempting Congress from Obamacare persists because under Medicare for all employers can still provide their employees with superior benefits as long as they're not duplicative of Medicare for All coverage. The best way to consider this provision in the contracting for medical services provision is as supplemental insurance that will not only be outside the scope of Medicare for All legislation but will not be regulated, seemingly in terms of cost. So, what do you think Congress will provide for itself with our money?
Further, there is no assertion that the back-door funding of superior medical benefits through public employee pay raises or other dollar amounts won't be enacted. Yep, it's just another loophole that makes it seem like we're all in it together.
Flashback: Obamacare established national legislation for minimal coverage, padding its inadequacies with "preventive" checkups and essential benefits used by insurers to justify increases in out-of-pocket costs for consumers to use their health insurance from copays to coinsurance to deductibles, and by increasing the needed health care services uncovered as insurers complied with Obamacare's bare minimum coverage requirements.
Flash Forward: Medicare for All preserves this two-tiered bizarre system of covered health care services for the HEALTHY but increased cost barriers to needed medical care. In section 107 of the proposed Medicare for All bill you'll find that private insurance isn't going anywhere, as a matter of fact it will expand its profitability because it can't "duplicate" the bare minimum services provided under Medicare for All but allows for PRIVATE CONTRACTS for services NOT covered by Medicare for All.
This would be an option for needed medical services that would only be available to the rich able to purchase the sky's the limit insurance coverage for the myriad of services not covered by the basic Medicare for All, which is much needed medical services. So, you want a checkup, you're good, that's not needed medical care. You need cancer treatment, drugs, etc. probably not so much. (And don't forget, Congress' benefits are preserved by themselves for themselves, so they needn't worry).
Buying Additional Coverage: Congress Protecting Itself
Flashback: Obamacare disincentivized employers from providing quality benefits to employees by allowing insurance companies to raise their plan costs for anything beyond the bare minimum coverage supplied by Obamacare. Insurance companies went along with these requirements not out of the kindness of their hearts but because they knew they could make more money under Obamacare with a few simple strategies…The first one is the downside of lists, which insurance companies are masters of: Yes they would comply with uniform premiums for whole populations (rather than high-risk groups such as those with pre-existing conditions) BUT the cost of USING health insurance in the form of copays, coinsurance, and deductibles as well as non-coverage of things not on the Obamacare "list" would increase astronomically. Of course, Congress made sure its employer, the federal government would continue to protect them.
Flash Forward: Medicare for All expands this inequity with its contracting for supplemental plans to cover all the stuff insurers won't cover. So now, after disincentivizing employers from providing superior benefits to their employees, because after all, why would they provide more than the law requires and pay astronomic prices for the same, Medicare For All provides that employers CAN provide such superior benefits to their employees. This one should be crystal clear, because having made the federal government the "employer" and making the rules for their employer, Congress will make damned sure that their employer provides such superior benefits at no increased cost to them (just us, the taxpayers) while other employers continue the price shopping of bare minimum plans that meet federal guidelines.
So let's start with the obvious: Why would consumers support Medicare for All and trust that Congress which is preserving its pre-Obamacare and pre Medicare for All public financing of superior benefits is really doing anything but making sure it preserves the current system? The answer is: We shouldn't.
