Is Medicare For All Important To You? If It Is, Forget Status Quo Joe

Most Americans tell pollsters they like Medicare-For-All... but corrupt conservatives-- primarily Republicans but from both parties-- haven't finished their attempts to brainwash the public that it's a bad idea. Crooked bankster Robert Pozen pointed out in a Wall Street Journal OpEd Wednesday that "The title is deeply misleading. It implies that the current Medicare system would be extended to all Americans. In fact, Medicare-For-All, differs from Medicare in fundamental ways." Yes? Yes? What are the socialist bastards trying to do to us now? The fundamental ways he cites are "much broader coverage" and "no cost sharing." The MoFos!

Despite not allowing us to pay anything and despite making dental care, vision care, hearing care and a patient friendly (rather than profit-friendly) prescription drug plan, a Charge Research poll released yesterday ""71% of Democratic voters are more likely to vote for a candidate if the candidate supports Medicare-for-All." That's tough on a corporate whore like Status Quo Joe Biden. His allies at Big PhRMA are counting on him to do what he has always done best: stab working families in the back while pretending to be one of them. But the word is starting to get out-- The health care industry is betting on Joe Biden in its war against Medicare-for-all-- that in issues involving corporate greed, Biden is still the corrupt slime bag he's been since first getting elected to the Senate in 1972-- when he beat Republican Caleb Boggs 116,006 (50%) to 112,844 (49%). That's an incredibly small number of voters who sent that asshole to the U.S. Senate where he did so much harm to so many people.

Yesterday, Henry Gomez, reporting for BuzzFeed News from Biden's Potemkin Village event in Pittsburgh, wrote that "While others rally around ideas such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, Biden used his kickoff rally to advocate for a more moderate public option for health insurance and less sexy policy proposals." Ahhh... that word again: "moderate." What makes Biden's corrupt corporatist proposal "moderate," instead of "corrupt," "corporatist" and "conservative." Biden constantly lies-- he's more like Trump in that way than any of the 20 Democrats running for the nomination-- telling his audiences, usually too ignorant to know any better, that he's the most progressive candidate. He's actually the most conservative of the viable candidates. (It's arguable that some of the non-viable candidates-- think one-percenters like Frackenlooper, Bennet and Delaney-- are more conservative; and no one has any idea what McKinsey Pete stands for from one speech to the next.)

Biden diverged from much of the rest of the Democratic field on health care. He called the Affordable Care Act-- which as Obama’s vice president he proclaimed a “big fucking deal”-- a “huge step forward” before talking up a public option to purchase government-run health care.

“Whether you’re covering it through your employer, or on your own, or not, you all should have a choice to buy into a public option plan for Medicare,” he said.

Biden, who was late to the stage and kept his speech to under a half hour, promised more specific policy proposals later, noting that those in the audience had stood waiting for him for hours.

Convenient. I wonder if that will be what he does to avoid policy questions at future events as well. Meanwhile one of Pelosi top henchmen Rosa DeLauro, 76 year old former Rahm Emanuel housemate, has introduced a weak and ineffective bill, Medicare for America, that the insurance companies and mainstream conservatives prefer. The more confusion sewn-- especially by doddering old hacks like DeLauro-- the better for Biden and the insurance and drug companies. Right-of-center Democratic Party establishment operation, Center for American Progress, is pushing DeLauro's plan in the hope of derailing the actual progressive legislation proposed by Jayapal in the House and Bernie in the Senate.

High profile and much loved progressive activist Ady Barkan, who is dying of ALS, infuriated the conservative Democrats with a heart-wrenching speech. "Some people argue that although Medicare for All is a great idea, we need to move slowly to get there," Barkan said in his opening statement. "But I needed Medicare for All yesterday. Millions of people need it today. The time to pass this law is now."

If Bernie wins and progressives can get rid of Pelosi in 2020-- both very doable-- they would have to take back at least a bare minority in the Senate and pass Medicare-For-All through budget reconciliation. The problem there would be the fake Dems in the Senate like Kyrsten Sinema, Joe Manchin, Tom Carper, Mark Warner and Jacky Rosen. Tough hill to climb! Bernie penned an OpEd yesterday urging his allies in the fight for health care not to back down in the face of adversaries like Pelosi, Biden and DeLauro.

A decade ago, when I introduced legislation guaranteeing medical care to every American, the proposal was cast as a "radical" and "unrealistic" measure, and I could not convince a single senator to cosponsor the bill.

Ten years later, our Medicare for All bill has widespread support in the House and Senate, and polls show Medicare for All is supported by a majority of Americans, including a majority of Republicans.

As the House this week held historic hearings about Medicare for All, we must remember that this transformation did not happen by accident. It happened because Americans from all walks of life understand that we have a dysfunctional health care system designed to make huge profits for the drug companies and the insurance companies, while tens of millions remain uninsured or underinsured and we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.

And these Americans are now fighting back. They are not only resisting Trump's efforts to throw 32 million people off the health care they have; they are demanding that health care in the United States be considered a right, not a privilege.

Now, because of these grassroots efforts, we are on the verge of a historic victory-- and that reality is prompting a backlash from the powerful special interests that continue to reap hundreds of billions of dollars from the status quo.

But our message must be clear: We must remember the lessons of history and refuse to back down.

This is not going to be an easy fight. To try to stop our movement’s momentum for Medicare for All, the insurance and pharmaceutical industries have recently formed a front group called the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future. In reality, this is a partnership to protect health industry profits. Through deceptive ads, the group’s goal is to try to persuade legislators to oppose Medicare for All, or divide and confuse us with weaker proposals.

This group’s members aren’t patients or consumers or people impacted by our current health care system-- they are insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry’s lobbying group. These groups spent $143 million on lobbying in 2018 to try to preserve a system that is a disaster for millions of Americans, but that is making big money for CEOs. In 2017 alone, while Americans were getting crushed by higher premiums and prescription drug prices, the top 65 health care CEOs made $1.7 billion in compensation, and the 25 highest-paid CEOs in the pharmaceutical industry made roughly $440 million.

So it should be no surprise that these companies and their political groups will spend enormous sums of money to try to stop us.

But let us be absolutely clear: These frantic attempts to derail our progress are a sign that we are winning-- and that means we cannot rest, we cannot back down, and we cannot accept any substitute.

We must stand firm in unequivocally declaring that through a Medicare for All system, we are going to make health care a human right for all people in this country. Our bill expands Medicare to cover all people and to cover long-term care. It will reduce overall health care spending and finally end the situation whereby Americans are forced to choose between putting food on the table and paying for medicine.

And here is some good news to remember as we begin the 2020 presidential election campaign: If we keep pushing, history suggests that we will be victorious.

Recall that in the mid–20th century, President Harry Truman first proposed guaranteeing health care to seniors. This idea was billed as radical, “un-American,” and an attack on basic freedom that would be a political loser. And because of that withering assault, the idea stalled in Congress for years-- until voters made their voices heard.

In 1960, America elected John F. Kennedy after he campaigned in support of Truman’s idea. That election prompted a health care bill to finally begin being debated in Congress, and Kennedy at the time noted that “what we are now talking about doing, most of the countries of Europe did years ago.”

Of course, the legislation was initially blocked by Republicans and conservative Democrats, who argued that if the proposal passed, it would be nothing short of the end of the republic. Americans, though, were not deterred-- they fought back with a 1964 election landslide that was so enormous, the new Congress was all but forced to immediately pass what is now known as Medicare.

“It took a big election, with voters changing the balance of power on Capitol Hill,” as Princeton historian Julian Zelizer wrote.

More than a half-century after that achievement, we are now at a similar moment in American history.

This is a moment that requires us to say louder and more clearly than ever that health care is a human right, not a privilege.

This is a moment to point out that Medicare is the country’s most popular and cost-effective health care program-- and that by expanding it to cover everyone, we will save Americans money.

This is a moment to say that we cannot accept any more Americans dying or going bankrupt for lack of medical care. This is a moment to proudly declare that Medicare for All’s time has come.

In short, this is a moment to stand up, not stand down. If we do that, we will win.