NPR reports that over the past 3 years, Medicare has been overcharged an excess of $30 billion by different health insurers, and recuperating the money is a slow and difficult process. Medicare Advantage plans are the cause of this crisis. 

Sen. Michael Bennet is one of the Democratic Party’s chief mouthpieces for private insurance, promoting “Medicare X,” a plan that maintains private health insurance as its centerpiece. As a major recipient of money from insurance, PhARMA, hospitals and other segments of the medical industrial complex, Bennet adopts many of industry’s talking points, as former insurance executive and whistle blower Wendell Potter describes in this February 11, 2019 article that will continue to resonate into the coming year and months of presidential campaigning.

Phil Galewitz, from KHN Kaiser Health News, examines why an increasing number of businesses support universal health care.  The rising costs in our current system is certainly one of the reasons.   He interviewed several people, including Richard Master who stated  “Insurance companies are not watching the store and don’t have incentives to hold down costs in the current system.” 

HCACF Board members Michele Swenson and Tom Gottlieb wrote a letter to the House Ways and Means committee in response to the recent Hearing on Pathways to Universal Health Coverage. 

Employers have provided private health insurance as remuneration (fringe benefit) for workers since WWII.  Beyond 1980, this benefit has become more destructive than beneficial.  (See the New York times article written by Matt Bruenig on April 29, 2019).

Two new Medicare-for-All Acts have been proposed in Congress:  H.R.1384 - Medicare for All Act of 2019 is sponsored by Representative Pramila Jayapal and S.1129 - Medicare for All Act of 2019 is sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders. Both bills have co-sponsors from colleagues in both the House and the Senate.

Understanding current Medicare structure and law leads to a logical extension of Medicare that includes all Americans. HealthCare for All Colorado Foundation provides a summary that defines implementation of a financial plan for an Extended Medicare (aka Medicare-for-All). 

Libby Watson from Splinter News, reported on a recent Gallup Poll which showed that millions of Americans have to borrow money in order to pay their healthcare bills.  April 2, 2019.   This article supports HCACF's position on the importance of implementing a Public National Health Insurance to finance universal public and private health care delivery.

Private health insurers seek to defund and privatize traditional Medicare by supplanting it with the much less efficient, more costly, Medicare Advantage Plans that are paid tens of billions of dollars in extra subsidies annually. This piece by American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), representative of private insurers, thanks 368 Congress members for their “strong bipartisan” advocacy for enrollment of those over 65 in Medicare Advantage Plans. Even Congress members who ostensibly support “Medicare-for-All,” have endorsed AHIP’s letter effectively promoting privatization of Medicare. Most of Colorado’s delegation, Democrats & Republicans, have signed. Check to see if your representatives signed - let them know that privatizing Medicare by replacing it with Medicare Advantage is the wrong way to go.

February 7, 2019

Kevin Uhrmacher, Kevin Schaul, Paulina Firozi and Jeff Stein from the Washington Post highlight the presidential candidates and their positions on Medicare-for-All.  The information presented is based on the candidate's voting records, statements and answers to a Washington Post questionnaire.