<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">Medium</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">November 1, 2019</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">Ending the Stranglehold of Health Care Costs on American Families</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">By Elizabeth Warren</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">There are two absolute non-negotiables when it comes to health care:</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">One: No American should ever, ever die or go bankrupt because of health care costs. No more GoFundMe campaigns to pay for care. No more rationing insulin. No more choosing between medicine and groceries.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">Two: Every American should be able to see the doctors they need and get their recommended treatments, without having to figure out who is in-network. No for-profit insurance company should be able to stop anyone from seeing the expert or getting the treatment they need.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">Health care is a human right, and we need a system that reflects our values. That system is Medicare for All.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">The best way to fight misinformation is with facts. That’s why today, I’m filling in the details and releasing a plan that describes how I would implement the long-term policy prescriptions of the Medicare for All Act and how to pay for it.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">Under my plan, Medicare for All will cover the full list of benefits outlined in the Medicare for All Act, including long-term care, audio, vision, and dental benefits. My plan will cover every single person in the U.S., and includes common-sense payment reforms that make Medicare for All possible without spending any more money overall than we spend now.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">Option 1: Maintain our current system, which will cost the country $52 trillion over ten years. And under that current system –</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">* 24 million people won’t have coverage, and millions can’t get long-term care.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">* 63 million have coverage gaps or substandard coverage that could break down if they actually get sick. And millions who have health insurance will end up going broke at least in part from medical costs anyway.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">* Together, the American people will pay $11 trillion of that bill themselves in the form of premiums, deductibles, copays, out-of-network, and other expensive medical equipment and care they pay for out-of-pocket — all while America’s wealthiest individuals and biggest companies pay far less in taxes than in other major countries.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">Option 2: Switch to my approach to Medicare for All, which would cost the country just under $52 trillion over ten years. Under this new system –</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">* Every person in America — all 331 million people — will have full health coverage, and coverage for long-term care.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">* Everybody gets the doctors and the treatments they need, when they need them. No more restrictive provider networks, no more insurance companies denying coverage for prescribed treatments, and no more going broke over medical bills.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">* The $11 trillion in household insurance and out-of-pocket expenses projected under our current system goes right back into the pockets of America’s working people. And we make up the difference with targeted spending cuts, new taxes on giant corporations and the richest 1% of Americans, and by cracking down on tax evasion and fraud. Not one penny in middle-class tax increases.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">That’s it. That’s the choice. A broken system that leaves millions behind while costs keep going up and insurance companies keep sucking billions of dollars in profits out of the system — or, for about the same amount of money, a new system that drives down overall health costs and, on average, relieves the typical middle class families of $12,400 in insurance premiums and other related health care costs.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">No middle class tax increases. $11 trillion in household expenses back in the pockets of American families. That’s substantially larger than the largest tax cut in American history.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">=</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">America’s middle class is facing a crisis. For a generation, wages have remained largely flat while family costs have exploded. I’ve spent decades sounding the alarm about it. I’m running for President to fix it. That means doing whatever we can to reduce the overall strain on family budgets.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">Medicare for All can be a huge part of the solution. When fully implemented, my approach to Medicare for All would mark one of the greatest federal expansions of middle class wealth in our history. And if Medicare for All can be financed without any new taxes on the middle class, and instead by asking giant corporations, the wealthy, and the well-connected to pay their fair share, that’s exactly what we should do.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><a href="https://medium.com/@teamwarren/ending-the-stranglehold-of-health-care-costs-on-american-families-bf8286b13086" class="">https://medium.com/@teamwarren/ending-the-stranglehold-of-health-care-costs-on-american-families-bf8286b13086</a></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">===</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">Comment by Don McCanne</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></body></html>