Not Fake News Poll: Medicare for All
By a vote of 32-20 with six undecided, Not Fake News Snap Poll respondents say they want to see Medicare for All enacted, replacing the Affordable Care Act.
That question dominated the early part of the Sept. 12 Democratic presidential candidates debate, with Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren forcefully defending their commitment to enacting Medicare for All should they be elected president, and former Vice President Joe Biden defending the ACA, while calling for improvements.
Biden stressed that the cost of the Sanders-Warren plan would be impossibly expensive and would take four years to be fully implemented. People need help now, not four years from now, he asserted.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota warned that the Sanders-Warren Medicare for All bill would virtually eliminate private insurance, while Mayor Pete Buttigieg was among those who called for choice -- having a public option in addition to private insurance and allowing consumers to make their own decisions.
Here's an unedited comment submitted by Not Fake News subscriber Wendy Baruch.
We MUST move to a platform of Medicare for All because in the absence of this we will see more people dying and more greed squeezing the system. For doctors, patients, and insurance companies, the delay in a definitive PROCESS will only result in more angst, uncertainly, and deaths.
We are ALL on this merry-go-round. My insurance costs, because of the GOP, have more than tripled in the past year. We must move to Medicare for All and then phase in the pieces with everyone knowing that the end of the old system, is a set date. Last nights debate showed the candidates all over the place with phase in ideas for changing the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care). It is going to be like gerrymandering for our health if we continue to have the debate without action.
The debate without action is what a process of changing Obama Care by tweaking is all about. We cannot afford to risk the health of citizens, the loss of hospitals, the opportunity for greed to dominate the talks. This is why I am supporting Medicare for All with a definite start date. Then old systems can die away within a five to ten years transition period from the start of Medicare for All. That will allow folks the time to choose what they have, or what Medicare for All is providing. It will phase out the nasty payment processes that doctors experience in trying to get paid on a broken current system. Plus, it will allow the insurance companies time to look for new revenue streams.
Another comment, this one from NFN reader Rick Comfort:
It only works if EVERYONE is in. Cant pick and choose. One basic plan covers everyone. Optional " supplements" are available.
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Meanwhile, check our our new Snap Poll, with the question:
Do you support Beto O'Rourke's plan to impose a mandatory buy-back of assault-style weapons, such as the AR-15?
The new poll will close next Friday, Sept. 20, at 3 p.m.