Public Citizen Issues Report Entitled 'How the Pandemic Makes the Case for Medicare for All'

WASHINGTON, July 17 -- Public Citizen issued a 17-page report in March, 2021, entitled "Unprepared for COVID-19: How the Pandemic Makes the Case for Medicare for All."

The report was written by Eagan Kemp, health care policy advocate, Congress Watch, a division of Public Citizen and Kate Thomas, intern for Public Citizen.

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Introduction

The COVID-19 crisis should be a sobering wake up call for the American health care system. Despite having less than 5% of the world's population, the U.S. has had 25% of the world's confirmed cases and 20% of the deaths./1 Of the 25 wealthiest countries in the world, the United States remains the only one that does not provide universal health care./2 Many factors hindered the U.S. response - including failed federal leadership and willful disinformation from a variety of sources - but the reality is that our for-profit health care system put the U.S. at a dangerous disadvantage and hindered rapid response at every turn. It has also meant millions of Americans have contracted COVID-19 unnecessarily and hundreds of thousands of deaths could have been prevented./3

Further, the global pandemic has highlighted huge gaps in the foundation of the U.S. health care system. While a full accounting is beyond the scope of this report, six areas particularly highlight just how much our health care system has failed to prepare for and respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Our health care system has been failing Americans for decades and its weaknesses were particularly susceptible to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This report explores the system's focus on generating profit and revenue for wealthy corporations instead of health and well-being for the American people in a number of ways: 1) private insurers profiting by limiting access to care; 2) millions losing their insurance when they lost their jobs during the pandemic; 3) hospitals focusing on profit and revenue over patient well-being; 4) many nursing homes failing to meet patients' needs; 5) our public health preparedness system lacking adequate funding; and 6) the massive health disparities experienced across the U.S., including the particularly devastating effects on communities of color. All of these issues, and many more, would have been significantly improved if a single-payer Medicare for All system had been in place prior to the COVID-19 crisis, highlighting the need to enact Medicare for All before the next pandemic hits./4

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Conclusion

Under Medicare for All, our health care system would focus on health and well-being instead of generating profit and revenue for wealthy insurers. Hospitals, including many rural hospitals, currently at risk of closure would have the funds they need to serve their communities. Patients could get the long-term care they need in the setting of their choice. The U.S. would finally be able to ensure sufficient funding for public health, including future pandemics. And the nation could finally begin addressing massive health disparities in a comprehensive way.

As the pandemic has shown, everyone depends on the health care system throughout their lives. Whether we face a public health emergency like a global pandemic or simply need to meet routine medical needs, Medicare for All would ensure necessary treatments are available to everyone regardless of their ability to pay.

There would be no out-of-pocket costs or sudden loss of coverage, for example, due to unemployment, to get in the way of Americans receiving the care they need. Small businesses would not be further stressed by providing health care for their employees. In addition, under Medicare for All, Americans would have the freedom to choose a doctor or hospital to receive care wherever is most convenient during a crisis, instead of facing the additional burden of finding providers within narrow private insurance networks which may get overwhelmed during a pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic should serve as the impetus for the U.S. to do to finally do what every other peer nation has already done, provide guaranteed universal health care.

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Footnotes:

1/ As of March 11, 2021, the global number of cases was 118,328,593 and the number of U.S. cases was 29,191,168 (24.7%). The total number of deaths was 2,624,833 and the total number of U.S. deaths was 530,013 (20.2%).

CENTER FOR SYSTEMS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING AT JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, COVID-19 DASHBOARD (2021), https://bit.ly/3euGjhz

2/ Judith Rodin and David de Ferranti, Universal Health Coverage: The Third Global Health Transition?, 380 THE LANCET 861-862, 861 (2012).

3/ Steffie Woolhandler, David U. Himmelstein, Sameer Ahmed, et al., 397 Public Policy and Health in the Trump Era, 705, 708-714 (2021).

4/ Medicare for All would improve traditional Medicare and expand it to everyone in the U.S. with no out-of-pocket costs or premiums. Care would be provided in the setting and by the provider of each person's choice as there would no longer be narrow insurer networks to deal with. It would also mean that everyone would have coverage throughout their lifetime, regardless of their employment status.

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The full report including footnotes can be viewed at https://mkus3lurbh3lbztg254fzode-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2021-3-16-Case-for-Medicare-for-All-2.pdf

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