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. 

In this 9-minute video, Dr. Adam Gaffney makes the case that "only Medicare for All can fix the grave dysfunctions and injustices of the American health care system".  Fox News correspondents assert "extraordinary costs" of single payer insurance, refuted by Dr. Gaffney, who notes the U.S. spends twice as much as other high-income nations with worse outcomes. Large savings of single payer for hospital and drug costs, and especially for administrative costs, permit compensation for providers that is essentially unchanged under single payer. Dr. Gaffney contrasts the right of health coverage under Medicare for All with the unfairness of so-called "free-market" health care in which only those who can afford it get care.

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.

February 25, 2019 Press Release: Congressman Joe Neguse, Congressional District 2 in Colorado, has been appointed as the Vice-Chair of the Medicare for All Caucus and has signed the Medicare for All Act of 2019 which is scheduled to be introduced sometime this week. Congressman Neguse also is serving as a Vice-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, along with several of his colleagues.  

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.

HCACF Board member Vince Markovchick, MD presents how American taxpayers are paying more for their healthcare than people living in countries with national health insurance.  He asks and answers the following questions: What is the root cause of our healthcare dilemma? Why are our costs so high? What are the attributes of the “Ideal” health insurance plan? He also explains healthcare waste. cost and abuse in our U.S. insurance system, and why public opinion in the United States strongly favors single-payer national health insurance.

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.