Doing sociology and philosophy in real time by looking at developments in contemporary Western politics and culture, from a Moral Libertarian perspective. My mission is to stop the cultural systemist left and the authoritarian right from destroying the West's Enlightenment traditions.
THE TRUTH? Marianne Williamson vs Bernie Sanders on Medicare For All | TaraElla News
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In yesterday evening's debate, a main theme was Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren defending their Medicare For All policy against the objections of the more traditional candidates. I actually think Bernie put it excellently when he said that, a few minutes from Detroit there is a country called Canada where everyone has health care coverage, and people walk out of hospitals without a bill. I agree it's time that America provided health care coverage to all its citizens, especially since this has long been in place in Canada, Britain, Europe and Australia. There really isn't any reason why America shouldn't aspire to this goal.
But one thing that is disappointing about the Medicare For All debate is that it sometimes sounds too much like an ideological fight on both sides. During last night's debate Marianne Williamson voiced what many people are probably thinking. That it is, on one hand, very admirable of Bernie and Warren to fight for universal health care coverage in America, but that others also raised some concerns she agreed with. At the end of the day, what will work is a policy that can attract broad support, and such a policy will need to deal with concerns from all kinds of people. Going forward, the productive thing to do would be to work out a policy by seriously taking in all kinds of input.
Medicare For All is an attractive name, but it doesn't speak too much about the details of the actual policy. I mean, Bernie to his credit has a bill that lays out the details of his version, but of course, like any other proposal, it should be open to comments and potential amendments. On the other hand, many other candidates that say they are either for or against Medicare For All don't even have a detailed proposal available, so they are essentially saying nothing but platitudes. I mean, if you look at what Medicare For All looks like in the countries that actually have it, they do differ by quite a bit. Firstly, neither Canada nor Australia has abolished private health insurance. As I understand it, in Australia, high income earners are in fact required to buy private health insurace if they don't want to pay extra tax. Furthermore, what private insurance covers in each country also differs, with the private sector being much more extensive in Australia than in Canada. Finally, the Australian system is administered wholly by the federal government, while the Canadian system is administered mostly by the provinces. Hence, even among the two existing Medicare For All systems, there are plenty of differences. If America is to move to a Medicare For All system, there needs to be extensive work on the details. Platitutes and ideogical grandstanding won't help this work at all.
That's all for today. I'll be back next time to discuss another big idea. Subscribe if you want to follow our story. The transcripts are available on the internet. And remember to resist the hive mind and stay individualistic. The world depends on it.
