Received this e-mail today from U.S. Senator Chris Murphy’s (D. CT) re-election campaign:
The most popular health care plan in the country is Medicare. It delivers the best care at the lowest cost - it’s better than any other part of our health care system. But most people can only get it when they’re over 65.
Today, I introduced a bill to help change that.
The Choose Medicare Act will let people of all ages buy into Medicare as their health care plan and it would let any business also buy into Medicare and offer it to its employees.
I think, that if given the choice between a private insurance plan and Medicare, the majority of people will choose Medicare.
I’ve been working on this idea for six months with my partner, Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon. Today we were joined by Senators Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Richard Blumenthal, Tammy Baldwin, Kirsten Gillibrand, Martin Heinrich, Brian Schatz, Jeanne Shaheen and Tom Udall, who introduced the bill with us.
Add your name if you want Congress to open up Medicare to anyone who wants it.
There’s no denying that if I were designing a health care system from scratch, I’d build a Medicare for all system.
But opening up Medicare to anyone who wants to buy it will help us build on the system we have and gets us one huge step closer to affordable coverage for everyone.
Having Medicare as an option when you buy insurance will force the private companies to be more competitive, bringing down costs for everyone.
It also tests the idea that Medicare is the right benefit for everyone by allowing consumers and businesses to choose for themselves. If Medicare is indeed cheaper and better coverage, I think it’s best to let consumers make that choice.
This is a simple, but long overdue idea. I hope you’ll support it.
Every best wish,
Chris Murphy
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