SEN BERNIE SANDERS: Congress just made our healthcare system worse — Here’s the fix

After 43 days, the government shutdown has ended. After President Donald Trump illegally and cruelly cut off SNAP benefits to desperate Americans, including 16 million children, 42 million frightened people will again be able to put food on their tables. Federal employees will get paid. And, hopefully, airline schedules will return to normal. 

But, here’s what will also happen: At a time when we already pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for health care, insurance premiums for tens of millions will skyrocket, and 15 million will be thrown off the coverage they now have.  As a result, studies tell us that 50,000 Americans will die unnecessarily every year. The shutdown is over. The pain, suffering and death begin.

And all of this takes place in an economy that is already rigged. The rich are getting much richer while working families are finding it harder and harder just to survive.

SEN DICK DURBIN: DEMOCRATS FIGHTING TO PROTECT HEALTHCARE WHILE TRUMP, REPUBLICANS PLAY SHUTDOWN GAMES

Here’s the good news:

If you’re Elon Musk, the wealthiest man alive, you’re $163 billion richer since Trump was elected. And, even better, you’re on your way to becoming the world’s first trillionaire by having Tesla build millions of robots that will, by the way, decimate good-paying jobs throughout our country.

But, it’s not just Musk. The other multi-billionaires who sat behind Trump at his inauguration, people like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, are also doing phenomenally well. In fact, at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, the richest 1 percent now owns more wealth than the bottom 93 percent, corporate profits are soaring and CEOs are drawing huge compensation packages.

Here’s the bad news:

For those of you who are not wealthy, the likelihood is that you are struggling to just make ends meet. Today, 60 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Millions of hard-working families are finding it increasingly difficult to afford housing, health care, childcare, education — or even groceries. Sadly, 22 percent of seniors are trying to make it on $15,000 a year or less. Nearly half of older workers have no retirement savings. And a majority of young people will likely experience a lower standard of living than their parents. Shamefully, in the wealthiest nation on Earth, we now have the highest rates of senior and childhood poverty of almost any major country.

And it’s about to become much worse as a result of the continuing resolution recently signed into law by President Trump.

Let me give you some examples.

The average 60-year-old couple making around $85,000 a year will see their monthly premiums go up from $602 to $2,647 — a quadrupling of rates and an increase of roughly $24,500 a year. If you add in out-of-pocket expenses, many of these couples will be paying close to 50% of their income for health care. That is insane. That is unsustainable. People just can’t do it.

The average family of four making $44,000 a year will see their monthly premiums triple — going up from $85 to $253.

The average individual making $32,000 a year will see his or her monthly premiums also triple — going from $58 to $180.

For what? Why throw 15 million people off their health care and double premiums for more than 20 million? The answer: To pay for a $1 trillion tax break for the top 1%. Yes. Musk gets a tax break.  Millions lose their health care. That may make sense to someone, but not to me.

President Trump and some Republicans in Congress have complained that the Affordable Care Act is not an efficient way to provide health care. They’re right. Unfortunately, what they are proposing is even worse.

While the details are still sketchy, they want to eliminate the Affordable Care Act tax credits, which average $6,500, and send checks to some 20 million Americans to purchase health care on their own.

Here’s the problem: How is someone who needs $150,000 a year in cancer treatment going to get the care they need with a $6,500 check? What’s a pregnant mom supposed to do with a $6,500 check when the average cost of childbirth in America is $20,000? How is someone who has a heart attack going to be able to afford a $100,000 hospital stay with just $6,500?

This absurd proposal would lead to more medical bankruptcies, more unaffordable care and more Americans going without the health care they desperately need.

So, where do we go from here?

In the short term, we need to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits to prevent massive premium increases. We need to rescind the $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and the ACA so that 15 million Americans don’t lose their health care. Too many people will suffer and die if we don’t take these actions.

In the longer term, as a Congress and a nation, we need to have a serious discussion about the kind of health care system we want. Here are some of the questions that must be answered:

Should we remain the only major country on Earth that does not guarantee health care for all as a human right?

What can we learn from other countries that provide health care to all their people at half the cost per capita?

How do we provide high-quality health care to every man, woman and child in our country in a cost-effective way? 

Should the primary function of our health care system be to enable insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry to make huge profits?

In my view, the answer to these questions is not complicated.  We need to improve Medicare and expand it to cover all Americans.

And that’s precisely what the Medicare for All Act — which I introduced with 15 of my colleagues in the Senate and more than 100 members of the House — would do over a four-year transition period.

How does Medicare for All work? 

It would provide comprehensive health care for every American and end all premiums, deductibles, co-payments and out-of-pocket costs. It would create a much simpler and more efficient system. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Medicare for All would save $650 billion a year, primarily by eliminating the extraordinary amount of administrative waste and insurance company profiteering. There would be no more “networks,” and every American would have the freedom to choose their own doctors and hospitals. Medicare for All would also do a much better job of keeping Americans healthy by putting a greater emphasis on disease prevention and primary care. It would be funded by a progressive tax system that would require the wealthy and large corporations to pay their fair share in taxes.

In the first year, Medicare benefits for older people would expand to include dental care, vision coverage and hearing aids, and the eligibility age would be lowered to 55. All children under 18 would also be brought into the system.

In the second year, the eligibility age would be lowered to 45; in the third year, to 35.  By the fourth year, every man, woman and child in America would be covered by Medicare for All.

Guaranteeing health care as a human right is not only morally and economically necessary. At a time when the overwhelming majority of Americans understand that our current system is broken, dysfunctional and cruel — the time is long overdue for us to move in a very different direction. Medicare for All is the answer.

Let’s get it done.