f you want to imagine the future of health under Bernie Sanders or Kamala Harris, picture a hospital waiting room stretching on forever. Or the VA waiting lists. Or the NHS in the UK, which has a much higher death rate than we do.
That's the real meat of the Bernie Sanders - Kamala Harris GovMed plan that a whole bunch of Democrats have endorsed and embraced. Including Cory "I'll Say Anything to Win" Booker, Tammy Baldwin, Al Franken, Kirsten Gillibrand, Dick Blumenthal, Ed Markey, Pat Leahey, Brian Schatz and Elizabeth Warren.
As Betsy McCaughey points out.
Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All Act, introduced last Wednesday, outlaws private health insurance. Curiously, not one of the Democratic presidential wannabes crowding around Sanders for photo ops mentioned this alarming fact.
If Sanders has his way, 180 million Americans who currently have private coverage would have it ripped away and be automatically enrolled in public insurance.
And that means, the government decides what care you get. And what care you don't.
Remember Charlie Gard in the UK. That can be your child. Or you.
Medicare for All doesn’t just offer government health insurance to the needy. It makes private coverage illegal, including the health coverage you get at your job. Employers are prohibited from covering workers, retirees and their families.
Sanders’ bill raises a critical question: If you’re seriously ill, will you be able to get the care you need?
BernieCare guarantees you hospital care, doctors’ visits, dental and vision care, mental health and even long-term care, all courtesy of Uncle Sam. Amazing, right? But read the fine print. You’ll get care only if it’s “medically necessary” and “appropriate.” Government bureaucrats will decide, and they’ll be under pressure to cut spending.
That’s because Sanders’ bill imposes an annual hard-and-fast dollar limit on how much health care the country can consume. He makes it sound simple — Uncle Sam will negotiate lower prices with drug companies. Voilà. But driving a hard bargain with drug makers won’t make a dent in costs. Prescription drugs comprise only 10 percent of the nation’s health expenditures.
Limiting costs will mean also limiting how many mammograms, colonoscopies, hip replacements and other procedures Americans are allowed.
And yes, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris really will kill you.
For many types of cancer, the United States has the highest survival rates in the world. Cancer is diagnosed early and treated aggressively. Under Sanders’ plan, cancer patients will face deadly delays and no private coverage alternatives.
Meanwhile the NHS performs far worse.
Here's the specific text banning actual insurance.
SEC. 107. PROHIBITION AGAINST DUPLICATING COVERAGE. 23 (a) IN GENERAL.—Beginning on the effective date described in section 106(a), it shall be unlawful for— 8 TAM17H14 S.L.C. 1 (1) a private health insurer to sell health insurance coverage that duplicates the benefits provided under this Act; or (2) an employer to provide benefits for an employee, former employee, or the dependents of an employee or former employee that duplicate the benefits provided under this Act.
The only insurance that will be legal would supplement the Act. And it'll be quite easy to eliminate just by adding to the Act, without actually providing the service because of rationing.
If Bernie/Liz/Kamala/Booker DeathCare is so great, why outlaw private insurance?
The question answers itself, doesn't it. You don't need to outlaw an inferior product. Only a superior one.