What You Need to Know About ‘Medicare for All’
Examination equipment hangs on the wall in a trauma exam room at Perry Memorial Hospital in Princeton, Illinois, U.S., on Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. Almost eight months after President Donald Trump took office and promised to immediately repeal Obamacare, Republican senators are instead developing a small package of changes to help the health law rather than end it.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergIn most of the developed world, everybody’s health care is paid for by the government. In the U.S., for years that idea has been relegated to the far-left edge of politics under the name of single payer. Last year, Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent of Vermont called it “Medicare for All” and put it at the forefront of his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Now, with liberals revved up by their so-far successful fight to protect Obamacare from President Donald Trump and a Republican Congress, Sanders’s idea is getting some support. The legislation he introduced today would build on Medicare, the hugely popular insurance program for those over 65, to provide coverage to all Americans.
Expand it over four years into a system of universal care that would provide a greater range of benefits and cover more people. The transition would start by adding dental, vision care and hearing aids to Medicare while expanding eligibility to those age 55 and older, and all children under age 18. In the program’s second year, eligibility would be lowered to age 45, and in the third year to 35. By the fourth year, everyone would be covered.