Medicare for All: Bad for Doctors and Patients Alike

October 22, 2018   |   By The Association of Mature American Citizens

Medicare for All has been gaining considerable traction in American left-wing political circles over the last year, becoming a key platform position for many Democratic candidates in the lead-up to the 2018 midterms and the 2020 Presidential election. If the proposal were enacted, private insurance would be eliminated and the American health care system would effectively be run by the government.

When examined critically, it is clear that Medicare for All is unsustainable and ultimately just another name for single-payer health care. The United States would be causing great harm to patients by adopting this policy that, by all standards, is not sound.

This mistake has been made by other countries before: In January 2016, about 37,000 medical professionals in Britain went on strike to protest the poor working conditions of the country’s government-run health care system.

A 2016 report from Investor’s Business Daily describes strikes, saying: “This is the sort of disaster that can happen only when physicians are government employees. [. . .] Britain’s resource-challenged socialized medicine has been chasing away doctors for years.” Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) has long been overburdened, and the country’s universal health care system has given way to a full-on health care crisis, with emergency room patients waiting hours for treatment, vital surgeries being postponed, hospitals being dangerously overcrowded, and doctors working extensive hours.

America’s future faces a similar risk if Medicare for All becomes a reality. If American physicians went on strike, hundred of thousands of American patients would suffer while the health care system descended into chaos. Americans deserve to make their own health care decisions and receive the treatment they choose—this liberty will be eliminated if we enact Medicare for All.

Read the full Investor’s Business Daily report here: Britain’s Health Care: So Bad, Doctors Don’t Even Want To Practice There

AMAC