Dems Call For A Fully Government-Controlled Health Care System

If you thought Democrats’ health care wish list consisted solely of continuing enhanced Covid-era Obamacare subsidies, think again. Over the holidays, Politico had a helpful reminder that midterm election campaigns are showing how the dreams of government intervention in the health care system go far deeper:

Progressives are pushing Medicare for All in some of the Democratic Party’s most competitive Senate primaries next year, threatening the unity the party has found on attacking Republicans over expiring Obamacare subsidies.

A few days later, failed presidential candidate Tom Steyer claimed a Damascene conversion on single-payer as part of his campaign for California governor: “Bernie Sanders was right. We need single-payer health care. … In 2019, I didn’t think we needed single-payer health care.”

These developments bring to mind the old saw that the left hand doesn’t know what the far-left hand is doing. But it also emphasizes that Democrats won’t stop at reviving the (now-expired) enhanced subsidies — not by a long shot.

‘If You Like Your Plan …’

The Politico story quoted multiple consultants who cited survey data showing that most Americans like the health insurance they have now. Specifically, a recent NBC News poll found that “82% of Americans said they’re satisfied with their health care coverage,” including more than three-quarters (77 percent) with private health coverage who agreed with that statement.

That’s a particularly relevant data point because Sen. Bernie Sanders’ single-payer plan would make the private health coverage held by a majority of Americans “unlawful.” Leftists haven’t spent a lot of time discussing how exactly they would enforce a prohibition on private coverage. (Could people go to prison for buying “bootleg” health insurance?) Regardless, it’s a long way from Barack Obama’s attempts to claim that “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it” under Obamacare, a claim that turned into PolitiFact’s “Lie of the Year” for 2013.

Likewise, even the name “Medicare for All” represents a fraudulent attempt to sell a single-payer system to the public. As I previously noted, Sanders’ bill would abolish the current Medicare program and liquidate the existing Medicare trust funds, taking funds designed to support seniors and using them to fund an entirely new program (also called Medicare) that would cover the entire population. Those policies make the Sanders program not “Medicare for All” but “Medicare for None.”

But Wait, There’s More!

If abolishing all private health coverage and the existing Medicare program weren’t enough, Democrats have plenty more policies as part of their single-payer “dream” to give Americans nightmares:

• As Kamala Harris observed when she first ran for president, single-payer would provide “free” taxpayer-funded benefits to individuals in this country illegally (which even Hillary Clinton has admitted would serve as a magnet for additional unlawful migration).
• The legislation would also allow taxpayer-funded abortion on demand, overturning half a century of precedent since Congress enacted the Hyde Amendment (which prevents taxpayer funding of elective abortion) in 1976.
• By making nearly all care “free,” single-payer would lead to skyrocketing demand for health care, forcing government bureaucrats to contain costs by rationing the supply.
• A fully socialized health care system would entrench government interests, increasing the odds of corruption even as federal spending explodes.

You would think that actions taken over the past year by the Trump administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a bete noire of the left, would make Democrats hesitant about giving the federal government even more power. Thus far, however, few Democrats seem inclined to stop pursuing their socialist utopia. After all, they’re from the government, and they’re here to help.

Long Arm of Government

The debate over the enhanced subsidies hints at the left’s position. Democrats are continuing to support the revival of policies that would make some households earning over $500,000 per year eligible for enhanced Obamacare subsidies. 

A party that could make some members of the “1 percent” eligible for “low-income” insurance subsidies sounds like a party focused on government control of the health care system above all else. Viewed from that perspective, it seems entirely unsurprising that Democrats will continue to push for a health care system entirely controlled by the federal government from Washington. Don’t be surprised if the 2028 Democrat primaries turn into yet another litmus test on this policy.