Being a team player for the Democratic Party is exhausting. The old guard refuses to cede power to the far left, the issues are repetitive and so far not well received by the masses, and swamp sitters still dictate the issues to support.
As the freshman class of the 116th Congress attempts to wrestle the baton from the gnarled hands of the last century, the mandate is clear: push ideological bills, dispense the checklist items on the platform docket, and claim successes heading into a presidential primary season.
And that’s why the same tired old legislation – from former Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) vintage 2003-2017 couched in Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)-style campaign rhetoric – is back on the floor.
Welcome, America, to Medicare Care for All Act 2019, a bill sponsored by far-left-wing socialist Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and endorsed by more than 100 of the newest members of the House.
Here we go again.
What’s in It?
As sponsors for legislation go, Jayapal is as “go, team socialism!” as any of her co-members. She based her campaign platform on raising the minimum wage, ensuring debt-free education, expanding social programs, and opening borders.
Check, check, check, and check.
Jayapal’s version of Medicare for All (M4A) would transition every American to the plan over two years – besting Sanders’ timeline by half. Newly announced presidential candidate Sanders is scrambling to compete, according to Josh Miller-Lewis, a spokesman for the senator.
In the latest version of socialized medicine, employers would be banned from offering their own private plans to compete with Medicare.
Pramila Jayapal
Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) is a U.S. advocacy group supporting and apparently supplying the warm and fuzzy information on Jayapal’s universal health care plan. In their world, there will be no need for the two million people employed in the insurance industry, health care practitioners would be salaried on a government-imposed scale, and “Investor ownership of the health care delivery system (hospitals, clinics, etc.) would not be allowed because it raises costs and reduces quality.”
This new version would give the federal government oversight of, well, everything, including paperwork, prescriptions, administering, and problem solving. Remember the Veterans Health Administration scandal of 2014 – when it was discovered that the government-run program was an unchecked systemic cancer of mismanagement, neglect, and failure? Yeah, let’s do that again on a much greater scale.
Policy wonks who study health care issues are concerned the rapid transition could negatively impact private-provider and pharmaceutical markets, resulting in exorbitant price increases and a rush to M4A that would bog down the system.
Under Jayapal’s plan, every American would receive medical, vision, dental, and long-term care at no cost. Similar proposals have shown to be burdensome to the government, costing a whopping $32 trillion – a number that steadily increases with each legislative session as further research and plan details are revealed.
Okay, but how are you going to pay for it?
Well, no one has any idea beyond a small “incremental” tax. That just sounds good to an out-of-touch voting base. When Sanders introduced his M4A in 2018, Kenneth Thorpe, a health policy professor at Emory University in Atlanta, was the first to pump the brakes, warning:
"It's showing that if you are going to go in this direction, it's going to cost the federal government $2.5 trillion to $3 trillion a year in terms of spending. Even though people don't pay premiums, the tax increases are going to be enormous. There are going to be a lot of people who'll pay more in taxes than they save on premiums."
What is with socialists that they cannot grasp simple economics?
Reality Check
The good news is no one believes this bill will get out of the House, let alone find its way through the checks and balances of the U.S. legislative branch. Even Democrats are making noises to deradicalize the plan.
Those outside the Beltway who back it are the usual suspects: the American Federation of Teachers, SEIU, MoveOn, and the Association of American Flight Attendants. Noticeably silent? Center for American Progress, AARP, and Protect Our Care.
But, of course, Democratic presidential candidates will leave their fingerprints all over the plan, while the incumbent and whoever foolishly challenges him will fight as if they were in a battle for their soul. We wouldn’t be in this mess had the Republicans used their two-year super majority to repeal and replace Obamacare. What a waste of a rubber-stamp opportunity! And we are left to listen to the ridiculousness, ad nauseam, of the freshman congressional class of 2018.
Uncle, already.
