At least one-third of House Democrats are formally pushing for the U.S. to adopt a government-funded healthcare system in which all residents of all ages would be covered under Medicare.
Such a system doesn’t have enough supporters to pass Congress, but the push is happening ahead of the November midterm elections, and at a time when other factions of the party are urging for more incremental changes to the healthcare system that build off of Obamacare.
Democrats announced on Thursday that they were forming a “Medicare for All” Caucus, which has 66 founding members and will be co-chaired by Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, and Debbie Dingell of Michigan. Appearing at a press conference outside the Capitol, lawmakers proclaimed that “healthcare is a right” and said that the current system failed to adequately address rising healthcare costs and left too many people without coverage or access to medicines.
The goal of the new caucus will be to gather and present information about how a Medicare-run system would work, to study similar policies around the world, and to decide how such a system would be financed, Jayapal said.
“We are united today by the common conviction that healthcare is a human right, that healthcare must be affordable and accessible in the U.S.,” she said
Jayapal framed the system as building off Obamacare, noting that the healthcare law had for the first time prohibited insurers from turning away people with pre-existing health conditions such as cancer or diabetes, and from charging them more. The expansion of Medicaid to low-income people had also helped to move in the direction of “Medicare for All,” Jayapal said.
Medicare currently covers adults 65 and older and people with disabilities. The “Medicare for All” plan would move all people in the U.S. from private health insurance, Medicaid, and being uninsured, to being covered by the Medicare program.
Ellison, who is also deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is the lead House Democrat behind the Expanded and Improved Medicare For All Act, which has the support of 122 of 193 Democrats in the House.
Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, said that the support brought the country “the closest it has ever been” to a system in which all residents in the U.S. would have healthcare coverage.
Under the proposal in both the House and Senate, the government would be the sole payer for healthcare services, from mental health to emergency care and prescription drugs. People who now receive private medical coverage under a job would lose that plan to receive Medicare instead, and their employers would pay higher taxes rather than pay for the cost of private plans.
Sixteen Democrats have rallied behind Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on the Senate side to support the move. The bill hasn’t been assessed by the Congressional Budget Office to see how much it would cost, but a 2016 analysis of Sanders’ presidential campaign plan by the liberal Urban Institute estimated it would cost $32 trillion over a decade.
A poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 53 percent of respondents said they favor a single-payer system, but support falls off when arguments are made about the government having more involvement in healthcare and when questions are asked about financing through higher taxes.
