Here are some existing federal programs, and the approximate number of people covered:
Medicare 53.8 Million
Medicaid 6.5
TriCare (DoD retirees) 9.4
Affordable Care Act 16.6
CHIP 8.4
Federal Employees 9.0 Million
To me, that sums up to be 162 Million people covered (and it may be more, as some programs cover other family members, too). And, I haven’t even included the Veterans’ Administration. Latest data from the Census Bureau is from last year, when our population was 321,418,820.
So, as of these data, just about 50% of the population is already covered by an array of different federal medical insurance programs, and (I’d guess) the insurance companies are scrambling for the other half, and still trying to overpay their executive corps (soon to be “executive corpse”).
What we need, and it’s clearly time—as the last industrialized nation on Earth without a single-payer system—is a National single-payer system that takes seriously the negotiation of reasonable prices for medical care, medical products, major surgeries, hospitalization, and everyday medical visits to see the physician. That cures a whole BUNCH of evils, like the Mylan CEO roasting that took place today in Washington, having raised the price on EpiPens to $600 (for two!), just because they COULD, and wanted to raise investors’ interest so they could be rewarded as executives with more, and more, and more money.
In fact, I suspect Mylan shifted their prices dramatically upward, so they’d have a better “starting position” in the inevitable negotiations with the single-payer system that is bound to emerge from this patchwork we already have.
Change is often difficult, and insurance companies, and physician groups, and pharmaceutical firms will be paying our elected representatives well to keep this from happening...and THAT’s why we have to get the Citizens United ruling overturned!