Medicare for All

If you’ve been reading DWT with even the slightest regularity, you probably know what a big fan of Medicare I am. I feared it when I was in my late 50s because I had what I thought was perfect private insurance, a platinum plan that AOL-TimeWarner gave to divisional chairmen and presidents. But once I retired and turned 65, I had to move to Medicare-- and just as I was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer.

These people all belong in prison-- but only because no one would ever agree their crimes are capital offensesDick Gephardt’s dream was to be President or Speaker of the House or very wealthy; he never made it beyond majority leader, but he sure did become very wealthy, selling access to his friends in office to the highest bidders. Now he’s one of the nation's most contemptible Goldman Sachs and PhRMA lobbyist scumbags.

Data for Progress, Sean McElwee's outfit, has been doing an especially important-- even magnificent-- job this cycle.

Students were shocked when they were told that Medicare for All would remove about 100 million Americans from their private insurance plans, an estimated one million jobs would be lost and each taxpayer would have to contribute about 20% of their income to fund the program.

Healthcare corporations are spending millions of dollars on astroturfed attack ads against Medicare for All. The Partnership for America’s Healthcare Future, for example, a coalition of hospitals and insurance companies, has spent $1 million on a television campaign against changes to the current healthcare system they profit from.

You may have read some of the coverage about how anti-Medicare lobbyists are writing OpEds for conservatives willing to undercut Medicare-for-All messaging.

While the Democratic presidential candidates are debating full Medicare for All, giant insurance companies like UnitedHealthcare are advertising to the elderly in an attempt to lure them from Traditional Medicare (TM) to the so-called Medicare Advantage (MA) – a corporate plan that UnitedHealthcare promotes to turn a profit at the expense of enrollees.

Mayo has the best p.r. operation of any of the campaigns-- and has had that going for him for years. It's how much a total nothing has wound up on the debate stage with actual leaders.

Hillary is being left behind by history-- but embraced by Big PhRMALast week Alexander Burns wasted a New York Times column on Hillary Clinton's opposition to Medicare-for-All.

Speaking at a roundtable of reporters and editors at business network Bloomberg November 1, Speaker Nancy Pelosi had a strong message for Bernie Sanders and other Presidential nomination hopefuls who endorse Medicare for All: “What are you thinking?!” The 79-year-old Californian characterized the idea as virtual political suicide, claiming that it may poll well in liberal circles but will fall flat in battleground states crucial to securing a 2020 victory against the i