Support Medicare for All

I am writing to ask you to support Medicare for all. Currently, the median wage-earner makes $60k a year and pays $12k a year in healthcare costs (20% of their income). Under Medicare for All, we would no longer pay monthly premiums for the privilege of having to pay up to a $10k deductible before private instance even kicks in (and often denies coverage or charges extra for doctors “out of network”), no more copays or out-of-pocket expenses. Instead, we would pay a 4% payroll tax exempting the first $29k in income. That same median wage-earner making $60k a year would pay 4% on $31k (exempting the first $29k) for a total of $1240 a year with no unexpected costs. It would be one single-payer pool so all doctors and hospitals (which remain private — this isn’t government-run healthcare) are in one network. Health insurance (like car and life insurance) would not be tied to employment. People can change jobs or move without fear of losing their coverage, and entrepreneurs can start small businesses without the daunting costs of providing health insurance for employees. There will no longer be such a thing as medical bankruptcy (which 500,000 people declare every year) — instead those folks can continue to continue to contribute to the economy. Medicare for All saves half a billion dollars a year because it cuts out the $100 billion dollars in profiteering by insurance and drug companies (dollars we currently spend that do not even go toward healthcare itself), and it cuts out the expensive bureaucracy of administrating thousands of different complex plans and networks. Costs are also reduced because folks can seek preventative care before their ailments worsen and become more costly to treat — before they burden an emergency room which is duty bound to treat them and shift the costs among the rest of the system, raising prices for procedures across the board to make up the hospital’s loss. Medicare for All confers comprehensive coverage for all medical needs, including dental, hearing, vision, mental health, and long-term care for the elderly and disabled. It is a far more efficient and streamlined system, which removes the profit-motive from healthcare, which is a human right and public good.