Sen. Sanders Introduces Amendment to Make Medicare Universal
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Related subjects: Healthcare Policy, Legislation, U.S. Economy, U.S. Law, U.S. news, U.S. Politics Comments Off
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a fiercely progressive independent and a strong leader in the Democratic caucus, today introduced an amendment to extend the Medicare program to all Americans, creating a universal, single-payer healthcare plan that would be able to pay for any bills across the entire privately-administered health services sector. The Republicans demanded that the amendment be read word by word, out loud, into the record.
As reported by the Burlington Free Press:
Sanders accused Republicans of trying to bring the U.S. government to a halt in a moment of crisis. He cited widespread support for his plan, which he said will eventually become law when Congress has the “courage” to stand up to those who “profit off human sickness.”
One Republican was cited on Fox Business news channel as saying he would “lay down in traffic” to stop Sen. Sanders’ universal Medicare amendment from becoming law, but Sanders accused the Republicans of betraying their oath of service to the public. He said that “in this time of crisis, it is just wrong” that “the best they can do is to try to bring the United States government to a halt”.
As blogged by Scott Hensley, on NPR’s healthcare blog:
The reading, allowed under Senate rules, is usually waved. Slogging through this beast could take all day and half the night.
Time is already short for action on the Senate health care overhaul bill, so how did things come to this? Well, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma insisted on the reading after Democrats rejected his proposal to require health amendments be introduced 72 hours ahead of consideration and with a full cost estimate, too. He’d threatened to do the same thing for the main overhaul bill last month, but didn’t follow through.
The senator’s long push for a single-payer system has been intimately linked to the ongoing reform process. Sanders’ voice has helped bring key demographic and economic research to the Senate floor, helping to inform numerous committee hearings and past efforts at incremental reform. Sanders pledges he will continue to fight for reform legislation beyond what is currently under consideration, that will establish a universal single-payer system.
Though Sen. Sanders did not expect more than a handful (five to ten) of his colleagues to support his universal Medicare proposal as an amendment to the current healthcare reform legislation, his introduction of the amendment, and the Senate clerk’s reading of part of the proposal, marks the most advanced stage of legislation at which such a proposal has ever been discussed seriously in Senate debate. For Sanders, it is a victory that a universal Medicare proposal made it that far, and he can be expected to continue to champion the cause in future healthcare debates.
Sanders vehemently chided Republican opponents of healthcare reform as providing no constructive ideas to solve the problems facing their constituents and producing no proposals that would be helpful in treating the economic ills that continue to threaten future prosperity. He also said a majority of Americans actually support the kind of single-payer system he’s proposing, which is not a government-run healthcare system, as critics have mistakenly claimed.
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