Medicare For All

The time has come for we as Americans to realize that our health care system is failing us. In the 1940's we made the fateful decision to have business pay for health care through insurance companies. That decision has led to a business model of money-driven medicine, that looks to the bottom line for success, rather than to the health of American citizens. As a for-profit business, health care costs have risen to a level where even businesses can no longer pay for them. It is time to take a look at a single-payer system where the government collects the money and pays out for health care, and the doctors and hospitals and clinics run their own practices. A tax to pay for health care would cost only one-third to one-half what we now pay to insurance companies. Right now the United States is rated 37th in health care in the world, we have a shorter life span, a higher infant death rate, and less access to a physician of our choice than any industrialized country. 46million Americans have no health insurance, and another 10million go with out it for varying reasons from time to time. The system is broken, we need to have the courage to fix it. The most meaningful bill for health care in the US Congress is John Conyers' HR676 - it is a plan for Medicare for all. Medicare as a program costs less, is more efficient, and serves our seniors well - that and the Children's Health Insurance Program have demonstrated that a government-sponsored program can be very successful.