WHAT THEY ARE SAYING: Americans Urge Elected Officials To Protect What Is Working, Reject One-Size-Fits-All Health Care

In case you missed it, in yet another rough week for Medicare for All-style proposals, voices throughout the nation spoke out in opposition to a one-size-fits-all approach to health care and encouraged our elected officials to build on what is working in our health care system, while coming together to fix what is broken.

Janet Trautwein, CEO, National Association of Health Underwriters, Michigan:

Medicare for All would take away the existing health insurance coverage of tens of millions of Americans – and deprive them of any say over their health care.  And in exchange for sacrificing control of their health care, Americans would pay trillions of dollars in new taxes …  Ensuring that everyone has access to health insurance is a laudable goal.  But we can more easily achieve it by building on what works in our current system and fixing what doesn’t.  Seventy percent of those with employer-based plans are happy with their coverage.  Medicare for All is not the only way to ensure universal access to health insurance.  In fact, it’s the most expensive, most complicated, most disruptive way there.

Sara J. Lutat, Nonprofit Director, New Hampshire:

Many in Congress, along with presidential candidates, want to start all over again and abandon the Affordable Care Act and our state’s Medicaid expansion program.  They prefer a single-payer system like Medicare for All, which is very expensive and not realistic.  This will only result in neglected care for the women [our nonprofit] serves.  I encourage Congressman Pappas and the New Hampshire delegation to take a step back and think about the nonprofit community and the needs of their constituents.

Cesar Chavez, State Representative, Arizona:

[My] opinion is that we should probably stop trying to create the perfect system, because there simply isn’t one.  Medicare for All is going to cost trillions of dollars in taxes and would never stand a chance of getting out of a partisan, gridlocked Congress.  However, do you know what has already passed Congress?  The Affordable Care Act … [It] is our best chance to keep the ball rolling up the hill of insuring millions of Americans and providing them quality health care.  The Democratic candidates for president should embrace the Affordable Care Act and provide us solutions to improve upon the current system. 

James Rang, Businessman, Iowa:

The reality of single-payer means that the public, including those of us in the tri-state area, will have fewer choices for their care, more uncertainty, and above all, higher costs … In a single-payer system, patient choice and free-market competition are removed to make way for higher costs and reductions in the standards of our care… There is no scenario where people will be able to keep their own coverage; the only guarantee is that lower costs are not a part of the equation …  This is the reality of the single-payer system that needs to be acknowledged in the health care debate …  Eliminating private insurance altogether – a key point of single-payer proposals – is not a clean swap.  It’s a major disruption where health insurance providers, doctors, local hospitals and the treatments they provide are all subject to negative consequences.