I was asked to speak at a Democratic club that resides in a very red area of Houston, Texas. Many of the members are centrists, and my goal was to illustrate to them why centrism will not win the 2020 election. What better way to illustrate that than the topic of Medicare for all?
It is important that we as a society figure out how to make Medicare for all happen, or we will find ourselves parachuting in with failing equipment. The cost of health care is increasing at a faster rate than inflation and wage growth, and that is unsustainable. These health care companies will milk the gravy train until there is nothing left.
One of the attendees told me that while she supports Medicare for all, her priority is to remove Donald Trump. Therefore, she is a centrist, because her belief is that centrist policies will win the White House. Unfortunately, that is coalescing into a well-designed false narrative.
Sitting in that room were a couple of millennials high up in the party. Interestingly, they agreed that given their condition—meaning they have no health insurance and with high student loan debt—a centrist position is no different than a Trump position. They seem to feel that the difference between poverty and abject poverty isn't worth the effort to reward any party that cares little about their future. One party is immoral, while the other is timid.
Polls already make it clear that Americans want Medicare for all and other progressive policies. The only way to win on a centrist agenda is to pull those numbers down.
The plutocrats are using two arguments against Medicare for all. The first is that it will cost so much that your taxes will go up. The second is that you will lose your private insurance. Both statements are true, with some very important caveats.
In short, taxes will go up but you will no longer pay any health insurance premiums—and every American will have medical coverage from birth to death. You will be left with more money in your pocket because in addition to no insurance premiums you won't have deductibles, co-pays, out-of-network costs, etc.
The original idea is to get rid of health insurance companies. They do not provide health care. Instead they restrict health care in order to make passive shareholders a profit and give overpaid executives an undeserved large salary.
We can pay for health care via more equitable taxation. Currently, every American either indirectly (through rent) or directly (from owning a home and/or a car) pays wealth taxes. Our wealth takes various forms, like real estate property, stocks, bonds, etc. A small percentage of Americans own most of the wealth in this country.
The rich get a huge, implicit welfare check because their assets are held in forms they've paid politicians to keep untaxed or undertaxed. That is yet another reason why the wealth disparity is ever0expanding. They get preferential treatment while they extract more from all.
For those who believe it is about wealth envy, one would have to first have a modicum of respect for the manner in which the super wealthy amassed their fortune. Anyone who wishes to understand real economics and not what they teach in business schools would immediately understand that the wealth of most of the super rich is made on the backs of others.
Their wealth consists of the money they decided not to pay their employees. They took advantage of those working for them in order to accumulate said riches. For that reason, it should be taxed at a higher rate than the common person's earned wages. Unearned capital gains and income do not warrant preferential tax treatment.
So again, is the money to pay for Medicare for all there? Yes, it is, plus a lot more to do all of the things we need to do to fix infrastructure, education, and more.
There are two important stories that one must watch. The first is that H.R. 676, the legislation number assigned to Medicare for all every year, is no longer. Instead they are working on a new Medicare for all bill that may include private insurance companies, who would extract large profits. The second is that a Nancy Pelosi aide has told insurance executives not to worry about Democrats pushing Medicare for all.
Here is a warning from this activist in the field: Millennials are the largest voting bloc in the country, and a large percentage of them are in dire straits. The country has the money to give us all health care if we do the right thing: stop welfare for the rich. When people feel like they have nothing to lose, they don't vote—they penalize.
Millennials will not accept betrayal.