Medicare for All is Really Medicaid for None

Leave it to a Democratic pollster and strategist, Mark Penn, to give the best advice possible to Republican candidates and strategists as we head into the final days of the midterms.

In discussing the close race for Senate in Michigan, Penn wondered aloud why Republicans were not hitting Democrats, especially Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, on the concept of Medicare for All.

While this concept sounds wonderful in the abstract, when explained to people with more detail, its popularity takes a nosedive.

First off, it would do away with private insurance. Most of those who have it, like it. It provides them with choices and appointments that are relatively reasonable. That’s especially true for the thousands of middle-class union auto workers throughout the state.

Compare that to the socialist Medicare for All systems you have in Canada and western Europe. For decades, the Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) has been pushing us to go in that direction. What they fail to mention is that it could take up to six months to get an appointment for a CT scan or MRI in these nations. Nor do they mention that it would cost $20-50 trillion over the next decade. When questioned about these figures by a reporter, El-Sayed responded incredulously that, under the program, most families would save money on their costs and, if they can afford it, get to keep their private plans.

Now El-Sayed has backtracked, saying that Medicare for All would mean the elimination of private health insurance plans.

Forgive us for harkening back to the famous words of Barack Obama, who, when pushing Obamacare, uttered the lie of the year: “If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.” Let’s also remember that Obama claimed his plan would wind up cutting your premiums by $2,500 per year. How did that work out?

And then there is the biggest issue of all that Republicans should have been hammering home to seniors on a daily basis in the final days of this election.

They should have been told over and over again that the Medicare plan they have enjoyed for years will be turned on its head when now an additional 100-200 million Americans will be put on the same plan.

It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out what that what this is going to do is delay current enrollees in getting a quick appointment from their doctor. Nor will you get the attention you deserve when you ultimately get that appointment.

The bumper sticker should be: “Medicare for All is really Medicare for None!”

The Medicare program that we know today will cease to exist.

Amazingly, Republicans have been on the defensive on this issue because they’ve always been poor in coming up with healthcare plans of their own.

But there’s a very easy response to the Medicare for All propaganda being pushed by the left.

The Medicare system loses money every day. Those who provide Medicare only get reimbursed for part of the service they deliver. The only reason they take on the Medicare patients is that private clients make up the difference. That’s probably why El-Sayed’s wife, a physician, refuses to take Medicare patients.

When there are no more private clients, the system collapses for those on the Medicare system.

These are facts that must be explained.

It’s not hard to do; you just have to do it.

Steve Levy is President of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of the “On the Right Side Podcast." He is the author of “Solutions to America’s Problems” and “Bias in the Media.” www.SteveLevy.info, steve@commonsensestrategies.com.