Medicare for All Would Crash the System

TUCSON, Arizona, Oct. 28 -- The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons issued the following news release:

Medicare for All is said to be a popular issue with voters, and the "Expanded and Improved Medicare For All Act" has attracted 123 sponsors, all Democrats. In a detailed analysis, San Antonio ophthalmologist Kristin Held, M.D., explains how one paragraph completes the government takeover of American medicine.

"Section 104...makes it illegal for health insurers to sell insurance that duplicates benefits of Medicare For All."

"The Affordable Care Act (ACA) caused millions of Americans to lose insurance they had relied on for years. This bill would rip their private insurance away from all Americans," states the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), of which Dr. Held is president-elect. "Medicare for All is more radical than the British National Health Service, which does not outlaw private coverage."

"If it doesn't work out, there's no going back. Once your private insurance is gone, everything you have becomes a pre-existing condition," AAPS warns.

Dr. Held highlights these features:

* The ruling party's ideology will determine what is prohibited, allowed, or required, such as abortion, euthanasia, or joint replacements for the elderly.

* Payment will likely be by the hated HMO method of capitation, on a mammoth, unprecedented scale.

* Payment for many services may be so low that they will become unavailable. Provider pay cuts of 40 percent have been suggested.

* The government will determine what drugs may be prescribed. Special interests will "pay to play."

* Funding will come by transferring all money in current government health programs (Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and within a few years the Veterans Administration and Indian Health Service) plus massive new taxes.

* An unelected 15-member board will make all decisions concerning quality, access, and affordability. There might be no physicians at all on the board.

* Initial cost estimates are up to $40 trillion, and experience has shown that such estimates are rapidly and vastly exceeded.

The results of this proposed legislation would be to crush the economy while wrecking both health insurance and medical care, Dr. Held concludes.