Dylan Scott from Vox interviewed Matt Bruenig from the People's Policy Project "on what he worries about — and what he doesn’t — for Medicare-for-all".  Matt answered some tough healthcare questions such as "How do you finance a single-payer health care system?" " Is it possible for the health care supply to meet its demand?"  and "What can the government do for rural hospitals that feel a pinch under single-payer?"
 

The video Big Money Agenda: Democracy on the Brink by CEO Richard Master, demonstrates how commercial insurance is failing the people with inflated administrative costs and inadequate policies, even as crony capitalism derails democracy. Lobbyists outnumbered Congress members 8 to 1 at the time of the ACA, guaranteeing continued high prices for Big Pharma. Fifty percent of Congress members move through the lobbyist revolving door. Founded on the common good, U.S. government has been bought by special interest money, and further compromised by the Supreme Court decision Citizens United, equating money in politics with speech.

In the article We Don’t Need Private Health Insurance, a case is made that Medicare for All (M4A) health care reform is in fact a simple substitution of the private health insurance by a public national health insurance that provides access to basic health services. The article further defines the role for private health insurance including; “duplicative” plans, “supplementary” plans, and “complementary” plans, all of which are defined by the writer.

The people will win Medicare for All. Thousands united this week to prove it. Mark Dudzic, National Coordinator of Labor Campaign for Single Payer, was on Nurse Talk discussing the need for a grassroots movement in support of healthcare justice. His organization, Labor Campaign for Single Payer, deems healthcare to be a necessity and strongly supports a Single-Payer Medicare-for-All healthcare system for all Americans.  Mark Dudzic calls for activists to get involved, especially during the Week of Action February 9-13, when there will be Barnstorm events throughout the country in support of Medicare-for-All.  

Wendell Potter highlights the need for health system reformers to "focus on for Medicare for All—health insurance companies are interested in profits, not playing fair. I should know. I used to be a vice president at Cigna".  Common Dreams December 15, 2018

This piece by CMS promotes privatization of health care financing, including Medicare 'Advantage' plans that use the pretense of 'choice' and 'competition' to sell plans to enhance the bottom line of multiple private insurers, while ultimately gouging taxpayer dollars. Multiple payer insurers actually reduce 'choice' of providers by reducing the size of their provider networks - only traditional Medicare offers true full 'choice' of providers. Also, true beneficial 'competition' should be among providers, not multiple profiteering insurers.

Many efforts in Washington focus on the privatization of Medicare to perpetuate a fragmented multi-payer financing model that is unsustainable and increases administrative costs. One-third of all Medicare beneficiaries are now on private Medicare Advantage plans, which have become major profit centers for commercial insurances who game the system to cover only the healthy. The best means to universal healthcare is one single large risk pool, traditional Medicare insurance. 

Michael Lighty explains how Medicare-for-All is simply providing healthcare to everyone, despite Trump's lies and spin.

Watch Michael Lighty's video.  What are your thoughts?  Please write your comments below.

As Medicare For All becomes more achievable, the fiscal and financial arguments against it will intensify. Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks and Ryan Grim of The Intercept break down the messaging strategy of universal health care's leading proponent, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. Kasparian and Grim spoke moments after the Medicare For All Town Hall completed in the US Capitol Visitors Center January 23, 2018 

Watch the video. What are your thoughts?  Please write your comments below.

As head of Montana’s Employee Benefit Plan, Marilyn Bartlett negotiated uniform hospital and pharmaceutical rates, saving system from bankruptcy. What Bartlett achieved in Montana over a two-year period can be accomplished with relative ease nationally under a Medicare-for-All national health insurance model.   By Marsha Allen, NPR October 2, 2018.  Photo by Mike Albans for NPR.