Kennedy Universal Health Care Plan

Extend Medicare to Everyone

Approximately 47Million Americans are estimated to lack adequate health care. The New York Times said the working poor are the majority, about 30M people. Most can’t get medications or go to the doctor. The town hall harangues are often between middle class people who are being conned by the Insurance/ the AMA/ pharmaceutical industries and their shills, or maybe set up by them.

An old paradigm hovers in the background. I earn my health care, and if we give it to everyone, it’s socialism. This is what the Republicans are charging. Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor of The Nation calls them “the Party of No-- which once opposed Medicare and Social Security. Now they’re fostering fear mongering about government takeovers and socialism coming to America.” Yet even Bush recognized the need for change: "When it comes to healthcare, the government has an obligation to care for the elderly, the disabled, and poor children.”

Reframe the debate. It’s not between republican and democrats. It’s between those holding on to a profitable self-serving system based on maximizing income, not health versus the basic tenet of serving the needs of all people with compassion.

Andrew Weil, MD, reported that a 2002 University of North Carolina study showed doctors who own imaging equipment sent patients for roughly two to eight times more imaging tests than those who don't own them. Allow everyone to go for checkups treatment, tests, and this will eliminate the extreme testing, some of it very radioactive, now being done for profit by Drs or to avoid lawsuits. Regular health care (not insurance) will eliminate the need for so many expensive drugs and surgery. Take Doctors out of the profit motive and let them again “Do no harm.”

The solution: give all people what seniors have. Give all people what the President and Congress have (and why can’t they find the courage to act?) Give Medicare to everyone. Do away with the age limits. Extend the coverage to include pre-existing conditions. EVERYONE. We all pay already through our taxes—even the poor. The system is already in place. Give Medicare to everyone, a public health plan worthy of a country who brags about being the best but in actuality has a terrible record of health care compared to other “developed” nations. According to Marcia Angell, former Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, nearly every other advanced country has a largely nonprofit national health system that guarantees universal care. Angell believe our best bet now would be to extend Medicare gradually to the rest of the population. She suggests we begin by lowering the eligibility age from 65 to 55, then after a few years, drop it to 45, and so on. ?Medicare is the most popular part of our health system which offers free choice of doctors, it covers all eligible beneficiaries for a uniform package of benefits, regardless of medical history or how much care is needed, and it cannot be taken away by job loss or illness.” Let Medicare be an option for everyone. Not everyone has to use it. Some can opt to have a private health plan.

Angell says there is now a bill in Congress that calls for exactly that -- H.R. 676 ("Expanded and Improved Medicare for All"), which was introduced by Rep. John Conyers of Michigan and has many co-sponsors. Unfortunately, given the power of the health industry lobbies, it's unlikely to make it out of committee without strong public pressure.

That’s you. And me. And everyone we know. Contact every member of Congress you can. Today. And President Obama who is waffling.

"The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on,” Make Sure Kennedy’s Dream Shall Never Die.