This week, progressive Congressional leaders submitted the 2025 version of Medicare for All.
JIM KAHN; [email protected]
Kahn is a professor at the Institute for Health Policy Studies at University of California San Francisco.
Kahn wrote for Health Justice Monitor: “In this time of oligarchic dominance, the symbolism remains powerful, even if there are no short-term prospects for passage. The fight for just and efficient health insurance continues.
“Amidst the current oligarchic turn of national politics, with cynical performative gestures toward efficiency obscuring the billionaire pursuit of government largesse, it is critical to reassert our quest for Medicare for All––the powerfully synergistic combination of efficiency and generosity designed to help everyone.
“M4A, [or] single payer [healthcare], is the magical yet real and practical strategy that would trim away hundreds of billions of dollars in profits and administrative burden, facilitating directing our massive spending on health care to … health care! (Instead of executives and shareholders.) Families will save money, and hundreds of thousands of deaths will be averted.”
Kahn told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “In the short term, progressives should maximize bill co-sponsors. For communications, they should emphasize the benefits of M4A for a wide swath of Americans in both political parties. This is (or should be) a bipartisan issue, and in fact public opposition to Medicaid cuts highlights that even a subpar and underfunded program like Medicaid is extremely popular across party lines. M4A provides financial benefits of course, but it also delinks insurance from corporations, which are increasingly suspect in the current billionaires governing situation. They should be linking M4A and democratic principles and values. Progressives should keep M4A as a front and center issue in Democratic politics––with even middle of the road, high profile public presenters (e.g. The Bulwark) speaking favorably about progressive Democrat possibilities for 2028, like AOC or [Senator] Chris Murphy.
“The symbolism is important. It highlights that Democrats, especially progressives, care about the needs of poor and middle class families. They’re not just complaining about Trump enriching the super rich, and his shifting of economic policy against the middle class… they have meaningful policy plans and solid solutions. They can make this an appeal to the middle class of all political stripes, as Bernie [Sanders] has done for years on health care and in general.”