During a recent Marantha Sunday school in Plains, Georgia, where he has been speaking for close to 40 years, former President Jimmy Carter said he believes the country will ultimately discard our current for-profit system of healthcare coverage, and opt for a “Single-Payer—Medicare-for-All” healthcare, which will allow each American affordable healthcare protection. Speaking about and advocating for the better healthcare is nothing new for the 39th president. During his term in office he pushed for an extensive national plan that benefited all Americans, not just those who could afford it.
Jake Johnson with Common Dreams writes:
The former president went on to add, “When I was in the White House, I tried to get Medicare to cover everyone.” As Max Fine, one of the original architects of Medicare, said in a recent interview with The Intercept, expanding Medicare to cover everyone, not just those over age 65, was the underlying objective of the legislation.
What does a single-payer healthcare system mean, exactly? Time.com explains:
Single payer—or Medicare for All, as it’s sometimes referred to in the U.S.—is a system in which all healthcare financing is provided by one entity, such as (but not always) the federal government. All residents receive core coverage regardless of income, occupation, or health status.
The U.S. is one of the only countries in the developed world that does not have such a system in place, but in other countries, like Canada, the care itself is still provided by private organizations and doctors, or a combination of public and private organizations, like Spain and Australia. In the United Kingdom, care is accessed through public providers, but additional private care can be purchased. But that care—everything from hospital visits to prescription drugs to mental health care—is covered for all residents by the state, via taxes determined by the state.
Max Fine concluded, ”Single-payer is the only real answer.”
Carter’s comments come as Medicare for All is experiencing an unprecedented surge in support and enthusiasm at the grassroots. A recent AP/NORC poll found that 62 percent of the American public now believes it is “the federal government’s responsibility to make sure that all Americans have health care coverage.”
Carter is in sync with respected and progressive Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), former Vice President Al Gore and others who are in favor of single-payer system and whom have been more vocal about it over the past few weeks after surging popular pressure. Warren believes it’s time for the next step. “And the next step is single-payer.”
Activists around the country, in large numbers, have formed a strong alliance to protest and “resist” Republicans who continuously attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act—a healthcare plan that was created by President Obama’s administration and has has allowed millions of more Americans to obtain health insurance who previously could not. Donald Trump called for a complete repeal of ACA, which would cause 32 million to lose healthcare coverage. The battle drags on.
The same aforementioned growing Resistance is pressuring their elected Democratic officials to support the single-payer/Medicare for all system—now.
Jake Johnson also writes:
During a recent interview on Democracy Now! Dr. Carol Paris, president of Physicians for a National Health Program, said the goal of the progressive movement should be to make “it toxic for our elected officials not to get on board with” Medicare for All.
“We’re not going to wait around for our members of Congress to say, ‘Now it’s politically feasible,’” Paris concluded. “If we wait for that, we’re going to be waiting for the rest of my life, your life, and many more lives.”
It’s time.
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