Please read today's Common Dreams OpEd where NCM4A Coalition Members Jonathan Michels and Jonathan Kotch argue, "Biden’s public option plan, which would enable people to enroll in publicly-funded insurance plans that would compete against private insurers on the ACA’s marketplace exchanges, won’t change this picture either. A 2013 analysis conducted by the Congressional Budget Office predicted that a public option would have “minimal effects” on the number of uninsured. For a real world example, we need only to look at the abysmal failure of the nonprofit health insurance co-ops that were given a similar mandate to compete with private insurance under the ACA. Out of the 26 original co-ops, only three exist today.
The public option is destined to fail as long as private health insurers are allowed to thrive. They will find new and increasingly sophisticated ways to undermine public insurance by cherry-picking the healthiest subscribers for themselves and shunting the more expensive, chronically ill patients to public insurance, compromising the potential savings that universal public financing of health care would yield."
Can you help get the word out by writing a Letter to Your Local Editor?
Here's a Sample Letter to Editor (200 word count), but it's best if you can send your own message in response to a recent health-care related article that you can link your letter to.
President Trump's response to COVID has valuable lessons, including the truth that not only a President but a healthcare system is failing us. To make that system work, President-elect Biden must insist on real and meaningful change.
Biden’s hope for a return to “normal” is good news if applied to the pandemic. His COVID proposals herald hope for tomorrow. But “normal” applied to healthcare suggests that worry is more appropriate than optimism.
The pandemic has made the pain of living with our profit driven, dysfunctional system especially intense: American families without paycheck or insurance to pay their bills. Loved ones lost from inadequate care in a profit driven industry that does not provide sufficient protections or support.
The tweaks to the ACA in Biden’s reform plan will not be enough. We must insist on reform that puts people over profits.
The solution is “Improved Medicare for All”. It will deliver equitable access to the high quality care Americans deserve, while eliminating the chokehold skyrocketing healthcare costs have on American families: no more deductibles, co-pays, or denials of coverage.
Bottom Line: Medicare for All remains an urgent and attainable goal to save lives. We must make that goal our shared reality.
Proudly signed by the following organizations