If the United States had a single-payer healthcare system, we would have more coordinated efforts and effective treatments in place to combat COVID-19.  This would help us save lives.

"In our corporate-run health system, consumer "choices" are shaped entirely by profit-seeking monopolists."  Jim Hightower is fed up with insurance companies, along with hospitals and drug companies, ripping off the American people.

Imagine this staggering fact:  The United States is now spending $2,497 per person on health administrative costs, or 5 times more than Canada spends.  This data was gleaned from the recent Annals of Internal Medicine report published on January 7, 2020

Can you imagine having to choose between feeding your children or paying money owed to a hospital? Going into bankruptcy or buying food?  Wendi C. Thomas investigated the debt collecting practices of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis and discovered the hospital was targeting low income patients who were struggling to pay their bills. Because of this highly publicized investigation, Methodist Hospital had a change of heart, stopped its harsh practices and started to erase all debts owed. 

Named the most toxic zip code in 2017, 80216 encompasses North Denver communities impacted by 2 highways, a largely unremediated Superfund Site, and City & CDOT plans to lower and triple the footprint of Interstate 70 through these communities. Community members discuss the multi-generational health impacts of contamination on their families and neighborhoods.

David U. Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler from The Nation, take an in-depth look at how private insurances operate, citing that "the case for a public option rests on faulty economic logic and naive assumptions about how private insurance actually works."  

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. 

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?"
 

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.

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