A local doctor recently wrote about the exorbitant cost of health care here in our valley and our country. A “Medicare for All” plan would alleviate this problem by guaranteeing that all Montanans receive high-quality health care they need regardless of their economic and social status.
A Medicare for All health care system is far better and more preferable to the existing one based on profit-driven insurance companies. Health insurance companies make a profit by insuring as many people as possible, offering coverage to as few people as possible, and providing as little treatment as possible to as few people as possible.
Unfortunately, this profit imperative is how our health system works, and as long as insurance companies are responsible for authorizing health care, this will be the case.
To facilitate informed public discussions about implementing a “Medicare for All” system in this country, misinformation, and myths about what it is and isn’t need to be dispelled.
As proposed, a Medicare for All system is a nonprofit program that would save more than $500 billion per year by eliminating copays and deductibles. A public agency would handle health care financing while the delivery of care would remain largely in private hands. A Medicare for All system would eliminate the rationing of health care going on now in this country because of the inability of many people to pay the cost. The total cost of providing health coverage would be substantially lower than under our current hybrid system. Nearly 20 percent of Montanans have no health insurance and between one quarter and one third are underinsured This country is badly in need of an honest debate about how to fix the problems of inequity, inefficacy, and cost of health care. It should start by dealing with the facts of different options, not misinformation and myths.
Edd Blackler
Bigfork