(Photo is from the Facebook page of Students For A National Health Program.)Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) is introducing a bill to create a single-payer health insurance system -- Medicare For All. Sanders says:
“The transition to the Medicare for All program would take place over four years. In the first year, benefits to older people would be expanded to include dental care, vision coverage and hearing aids, and the eligibility age for Medicare would be lowered to 55. All children under the age of 18 would also be covered. In the second year, the eligibility age would be lowered to 45 and in the third year to 35. By the fourth year, every man, woman and child in the country would be covered by Medicare for All.”
This is nothing new. Sanders has long supported single-payer health insurance, and has introduced bills in the past to get it done. None of those bills were seriously considered by Congress, and it is doubtful that this one will be either -- in fact, I doubt it'll ever even get to the Senate floor for a vote.
The real news is that 16 Senate Democrats have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill. That has never happened in the past, and it shows that the Democratic Party is moving toward the idea of a single-payer system. The 16 senators are:
Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin)
Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut)
Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire)
Cory Booker (New Jersey)
Al Franken (Minnesota)
Kirsten Gillibrand (New York)
Kamala Harris (California)
Martin Heinrich (New Mexico)
Mazie Hirono (Hawaii)
Patrick Leahy (Vermont)
Ed Market (Massachusetts)
Jeff Merkley (Oregon)
Brian Schatz (Hawaii)
Tom Udall (New Mexico)
Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts)
Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island)
While the bill has no chance of passing in the Senate, it can accomplish some good things. It could push the Republicans to compromise on fixing the problems with Obamacare. It also could hasten the day when we see a public option added to Obamacare -- especially if the Democrats do well in the 2018 election. And it moves us just a little closer to the day (still far in the future) when this country finally adopts a single-payer system.
This is not a win -- far from it. But it is very good news.
