Kamala’s Socialist Healthcare Plan is Bad News for Seniors
Harris wants America’s most vulnerable to be “unburdened” by healthcare coverage
During her doomed first campaign for president in 2019–2020, Kamala Harris embraced single payer healthcare with both arms. Harris sponsored or co-sponsored five different Medicare for All bills of varying flavors, including one introduced by socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that would’ve effectively outlawed most private health insurance.
Asked during a live town hall in January 2019 by CNN’s Jake Tapper if people who currently like their insurance would get to keep it, Harris declared: “Let's eliminate all of that. Let's move on.”
Harris then doubled down during the first primary debate when moderator Lester Holt asked for a show of hands in support of abolishing private health insurance in favor of a government run plan, Harris’ and Sanders’ were the only hands raised.
Harris, of course, later claimed she’d misheard the question.
Medicare For All Is Terrible For Seniors
Under the present Medicare payment rates, a Medicare For All system which would almost certainly reduce the availability of critical services for seniors. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services project at current rates, “nearly half of hospitals, approximately two-thirds of skilled nursing facilities, and over 8 percent of home health agencies would have negative total facility margins.”
Over 80 percent of skilled nursing facility residents over the age of 65 and over 50 percent of Medicare Home Health users are under 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Limit. Seniors dependent on these services simply cannot afford the inevitable costs of keeping these services out of their own pockets.
16 percent of seniors will stay in a hospital at least once in any given year, making seniors especially vulnerable to declines in the number of hospitals and other health care facilities. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that exact likelihood if the average provider payment rate under a single-payer system is significantly lower than current rates. Of course, without keeping payment rates at their current level, it would be difficult to imagine where the promised major cost savings will come from.
Additionally, nearly 90 percent of Medicare beneficiaries have additional coverage either through Medicare Advantage or another type of coverage. As liberal ProPublica noted while Harris was on the campaign trail September 2019, “high-quality, affordable coverage remains out of reach for many Americans, including many on Medicare.”
American seniors have made it abundantly clear through speaking with their wallets that they do not believe Medicare alone is sufficient coverage for the medical needs. Yet, Kamala Harris wanted to deny them that choice to seek out additional coverage and force them onto a one-size-fits-all government plan.
A Harris administration with a Democrat-run Congress in 2025 will almost certainly see a revived push for a Medicare For All system—and seniors will pay the biggest price. While details may be vague—as are most of Kamala’s schemes—any plan which increases reliance on Medicare will inevitably harm seniors by reducing available beds in hospitals and skilled nursing facilities and reducing availability of home healthcare services. That will limit seniors with a tough choice: Seek supplemental healthcare coverage purchased through a free market that they can’t afford.
Regardless of whatever flavor of Medicare For All emerges, it is clear America’s seniors will suffer.
(READ MORE: Kamala's Illegal Alien Healthcare Scheme to Cost $31,000 Per Non-Citizen from Your Wallet)
