Democrats Pledged to Lower Health Costs. They Just Haven't Figured Out How.
(It's called COMPETITION, as provided for Federal employees/retirees.)
' No issue animated the Democrats’ 2018 congressional campaigns like health care and the promises to expand access to insurance and to lower costs. But as House Democrats sit down to draft their vision of governance in the coming weeks, lawmakers find themselves badly divided on the issue that delivered their majority.
Centrists from swing districts, with the tacit support of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, favor incremental moves to shore up the Affordable Care Act and to lower the out-of-pocket costs of prescription drugs and medical care. They are pushing a variety of measures, such as shutting down cheap, short-term insurance plans that do not cover pre-existing medical conditions and allowing people to buy into Medicare at age 50 or 55.
“We have very practical solutions that we can implement immediately,” said Representative Kim Schrier, Democrat of Washington, who is also a pediatrician. “We don’t have the luxury of time right now to wait for a full overhaul of our health care system.”
But they are butting up against an aggressive and expanding group of more than 100 outspoken Democrats — as well as at least four of the party’s presidential candidates — who want to do just that, upend the whole system with a single government insurance plan for all Americans — the old concept of single-payer, now called “Medicare for all.” . .
Ms. Pelosi cannot afford to put moderate freshmen in Trump-friendly districts on the spot by putting Medicare for all up to a vote. . .
Backers of Medicare for all say that, if framed correctly around saving health care costs, it can appeal to voters in more moderate districts.
“Progressives have done a very good job making the moral case for Medicare for all,” said Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California. “What we now need to do is make the economic case.”
But with Republicans in charge of the White House and the Senate, the centrists argue that Congress needs to start with more incremental initiatives that could be slipped into larger bills, such as restoring money to enroll people in health plans on the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges. Other bills have bipartisan support; a measure drafted by Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, would create state-based reinsurance programs to help pay large health insurance claims, thus lowering premiums on the act’s exchanges.
“After years of damage done to the A.C.A. from past Republican Congresses and the administration, we must start by reversing the sabotage,” leaders of the New Democrat Coalition wrote in a letter to the chairmen of three House committees responsible for health legislation.
Ms. Pelosi has publicly stayed out of the fight, but with hearings on Medicare for all and other proposals scheduled in the coming weeks, that stance may not be sustainable.'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/us/politics/democrats-health-care-medicare-for-all.html?
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