“Medicare for All” Would Abolish Medicare
The Aug. 5 op-ed by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), “The facts about Medicare-for-all,” admirably called for a fact-based debate regarding single-payer health care. But it would help if she accurately represented the facts surrounding her bill — starting with its title — because the legislation has little to do with providing Medicare to all.
Jayapal criticized her fellow Democrats for “incit[ing] fear and sow[ing] confusion” by stating that, under her proposal, “Medicare goes away as you know it.” But a HuffPost article conceded that, “as a point of fact, the Medicare program envisioned under [Jayapal’s bill] is not the program as it exists today.” Moreover, Section 901(a)(1) of Jayapal’s own bill states that “no benefits shall be available under title XVIII of the Social Security Act” — Medicare — after the bill’s new program were to take effect.
A fellow with the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute recently wrote of the plan from Jayapal and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), “You can call it many things — from ambitious to unrealistic. But please don’t call it Medicare.” That Jayapal refused to describe her own plan accurately should cause readers to question what other inconvenient truths she has ignored regarding her socialized-medicine scheme.
This post was originally published in The Washington Post.