On March 24, President Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and the Republican Party failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Senator Bernie Sanders said we won a huge victory, but we must remain vigilant. “Medicaid now provides medical care to four out of 10 American children. Every member of the Congress should understand just how important Medicaid is and we cannot allow Republicans to cut it. We must expand Medicaid and Medicare so that every person in America is guaranteed health care as a right, not a privilege.
“We have got to have the guts to take on the insurance companies and the drug companies and move forward toward a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program, and I’ll be introducing legislation shortly to do that.”
Even though in 2016 a Gallup poll found a majority of Americans do support federally funded national healthcare, and many influential groups support Sander’s single-payer proposal, “single-payer health insurance still lacks support from many, if not most, Democrats, let alone from the Republican lawmakers who control both chambers.”
Senator Jeff Merkley supports Senator Sander’s plan, putting forth the idea of lowering the medicare eligibility age, allowing medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, and offering Americans the option to buy into Medicare.
The Republican Party seldom proposes legislation that will equally benefit all Americans. The Republican Party promotes legislation benefiting the financial good of the wealthiest among us. As long as they hold the majority position in Congress, a creation of Medicare-for-all, a single-payer health care system, will not become a reality.
It requires a demand for health care, not health insurance. It requires us to remove the profit incentive out of health care. It requires us to demand comprehensive, affordable health care for all Americans. The only way to do that is to vote Republicans, who are not willing to support the effort, out of office in 2018.
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By Daniel Marans
