By Bob Plain in
Rhode Island’s Future
“It’s
to provide the opportunity to people who are not eligible for Medicare to nevertheless
join Medicare and have all the advantages of reliability, efficiency, and
security of Medicare,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, describing the Medicare
For All bill he is cosponsoring.
“At
this point, it’s pretty aspirational,” he said. “A lot of the details still
remain to be worked out.”
Whitehouse
doesn't think the Republican-controlled Congress will pass the Medicare For All
bill. “Really the point is to move the conversation forward.” he said.
That
conversation, Whitehouse hopes, will also include the so-called “public option”
or a government-run healthcare plan that competes with private sector plans.
He’s also a cosponsor of a public option bill this year, and he and Ohio Senator Sherrod
Brown cosponsored the public option amendment that fell one vote shy of being a
part of the Affordable Care Act, Whitehouse said.
“There are lots of different audiences we need to work with,” he said. “Fundamentally, the goal should be that healthcare is available to everyone in the country and the only entity that can really do that is the government.”
The
bill’s lead sponsor is Senator Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, who popularized the
concept during his presidential campaign. Sanders, a socialist-leaning
Democrat, is the most popular politician in the country and the
odds-on-favorite at this point to be the Democratic nominee for president in
2020.
To
date, half of Rhode Island’s four-person congressional delegation publicly
supports Medicare For All. Whitehouse is a cosponsor of Sanders’ bill, and in
the House, Congressman David Cicilline is a cosponsor of Congressman John
Conyer’s similar legislation.
“I’m
proud to be a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All Act,” Cicilline told RI Future. “Medicare is an efficient and tested health care delivery model, and
expanding it for every American will further improve access to health care and
reduce costs.”
Senator
Jack Reed’s office has not returned several calls from RI Future seeking a
comment and a spokeswoman for Congressman Jim Langevin said yesterday he
remains open-minded but not committed to Medicare For All.
Whitehouse
equivocated slightly when asked if healthcare should be regarded as a
fundamental right. “It’s hard to say that something you have to pay for is a
natural right, but it should be a social right. Public education is a good
example.”
He
said Obamacare, and the ensuing Republican attempts to destroy it, have opened
Americans hearts and minds to universal healthcare. “Talking about socialized
medicine and the indulging in the fantasy that the free markets work in this
scenario has run its course,” he said. “The real issue isn’t slogans. It’s how
much do you have to pay and how are you treated.”
Whitehouse
is a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP)
Committee, which is holding hearings this month about stabilizing the existing
insurance exchanges created by Obamacare. That, he says, is evidence that “the
menace of repeal and replace is in the rear view mirror.”
Bob Plain is the editor/publisher of Rhode Island's
Future. Previously, he's worked as a reporter for several different news
organizations both in Rhode Island and across the country.