Medicare
for All has now become a mainstream platform for Democratic
candidates following Senator Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential
campaign which injected the possibility of such a policy into the
American political psyche. However, it would be foolish to think the
for-profit health insurance lobby would just stand by passively while
progressive lawmakers pass the Medicare for All bill currently in
the House,
which would effectively end the private insurance industry as it is
today. This is why industry-funded Democrats are beginning to fall in
line with a new centrist health insurance bill which is designed to
sabotage the Medicare for All movement while ensuring the medical
insurance industry continues to hold power over American politics,
all in the name of profits and greed.
Centrist
healthcare bill would maintain insurance industry power over policy
The
Medicare
for America
bill
would automatically enroll those currently uninsured into Medicare
while allowing those who have employer-sponsored insurance or other
private insurance to choose to enroll into Medicare if they wish. The
bill, which expired last year, is likely to be re-introduced in the
current Congress. The problem with Medicare for America is that the
plan would leave the for-profit insurance industry intact, unlike
Medicare for All. This is problematic because this means the
for-profit insurance industry will continue to have a financial
interest in making sure Americans do not receive healthcare without
insurance corporations also making a profit.
Insurance
industry will still have incentive to rollback healthcare gains
The
for-profit insurance industry, as it has in the past, will use these
profits to lobby for lawmakers to dismantle whatever gains Medicare
for America would garner for working Americans. The nation has
recently witnessed this dynamic in the Republican attempt to
dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA) via the American
Healthcare Act,
otherwise known as Trumpcare. In fact, the Republicans are continuing
their fight to dismantle the ACA right now via the court
system.
Of course, this comes as no surprise since the GOP has historically
garnered more political donations
from the insurance industry than Democrats.
Corporatist
Democrats will back Medicare for America
On
the other hand, Democrats are not immune to this type of influence
from the insurance industry. Centrist Democratic presidential
candidate Beto O’Rourke was the top recipient of donations
from the Insurance/Finance/Real Estate sector out of all candidates
on both sides of the aisle during the 2018 election cycle. O’Rourke
also happens to be the first presidential candidate in the current
electoral cycle to include
Medicare for America as a part of his platform. One can be sure that
other centrist and corporatist Democrats will come around to backing
Medicare for America in an attempt to appease their insurance
industry donors, while also sabotaging progressives fighting for true
universal healthcare coverage.
