Medicare for All and the Public Option will mean low quality of care from AFP

[carol ann parisi]

Health care reform doesn’t need more governmental overreach and one-size-fits-all Public Option and Medicare for All plans.

I passionately oppose:

1. how Medicare for All and the Public Option will mean low quality of care, especially for complex procedures
2. the government getting in the way of decisions that should be left between patients and doctors

So, carolann, what does more government interference look like?

Socialistic Medicare for All will outlaw private health insurance and the government-run Public Option would put private health insurance out of business. Both would make Americans totally dependent on government bureaucrats for health care.

Medicare already underpays hospitals and doctors. If it’s expanded, a growing number of experts expect many hospitals not to survive. That means government-run health care will give Americans long wait times and fewer choices in doctors.

Medicare for All will likely mean less research and fewer new drugs and medicines since they will be too expensive.

Medicare is already going broke--so expanding it means its financial demise is accelerated. The only option to slow bankruptcy will be to ration care – particularly for the elderly and sick whose medical costs are often higher.

And, you know this as well as I do, once a government program gets started, its costs skyrocket.

The rosy cost projections of the advocates of Medicare for All are no more truthful than the last time we heard “if you like your insurance and your doctor, you can keep them.”

In fact, the center-left Urban Institute projected Medicare for All would increase federal spending by $2.5 trillion annually. Federal tax collection would need to increase by an opportunity crushing 70%. This will jeopardize the well-being and safety of all Americans.

As an alternative to the Public Option, AFP has put together a set of far-reaching health care reforms that would increase transparency, competition among providers and enlarged access to health care.

I’m so happy Americans for Prosperity proposes a Personal Option that will provide better outcomes at lower cost for more people.

A Personal Option believes that expanding pandemic-era reforms can mean more people get better care at a lower price.

These popular reforms include:

• Telemedicine
• Eliminations of certificates of need so more facilities can be opened
• Enlarging the scope of practice for nurses and physician’s assistants
• and much more

Our plan of a Personal Option will provide better outcomes at lower cost for more people.

In short, we need to powerfully remind Americans what they already know – that government does very few things very well and all the government attempts at health care indicate that Medicare for All or the Public Option will create widespread suffering and needless deaths.

But if AFP is going to escalate this massive effort, we need the support and participation of Americans like you.