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. 

HCACF co-president, Vince Markovchick recently facilitated 4 discussions about our healthcare system. These OLLI classes were offered at the University of Denver and focused on the history of healthcare, comparing our system to healthcare in other countries, and reasons for the high cost of care here in the United States. 

Robert Reich addresses the 5 main lies being told about Medicare-for-All. He then explains how Medicare-for-All will actually save lives and save money. This short video is part of a series on YouTube called NowThis Opinion.

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.

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.

On February 4, 2019 Public Citizen published a report in support of Medicare-for-All.  This 69-page document called The Case for Medicare for All summarizes how a Medicare-for-All healthcare system would guarantee high quality healthcare to all U.S. citizens; even to those in need of chronic care or who might require preventative care.  The Political Economy Research Institute published its report called Economic Analysis of Medicare for All in November, 2018.

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.