30 Issues Election Series Debut: Universal Health Care?

Brian Lehrer (0:05)

From WNYC, I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my Daily Politics Podcast. It's Tuesday, September 22nd.

Beginning today, we'll be looking at an issue a day as they relate to the midterm elections, specifically to control of Congress and also the New York state governor's race. Issue number one today, how to make affordable health care an American right. We'll see how some Democratic and Republican candidates are running on the issue. From Medicare for All, two very different approaches among Democrat and Republican candidates alike, with Julie Rovner from KFF Health News. To set this up, here is Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who is running on Medicare for All. This is from a campaign video on the topic that he released in May. He explained how private insurance includes premiums, co-pays and deductibles and said his version of Medicare for All would have none of those.

Abdul El-Sayed (1:03)

No premium, no co-pay, no deductible. And unlike your current insurance card where there's an in-network and out-of-network with different fees, there is no network because it's good everywhere. Imagine the freedom that that would offer you. Now, I want to talk about some benefits to the overall system, beyond the security it would offer you without having to take money out of your paycheck.

Right now, our health care system isn't just the most expensive, but it's also getting more expensive because of the role that insurance fails to play.

Right now, we have about 700 insurers in the entire health care system. No one of those insurers, aside from actual Medicare, has the power to really negotiate with any of the providers of health care. That's everyone from clinics and hospitals and doctors, to pharmaceuticals and medical device manufacturers. Medicare for all would be the de facto insurer for everybody. What does that mean? That means that it is in a position to negotiate on all of our behalfs. Everybody knows about the term monopoly, but there's this other thing called a monopsony. A monopoly is when there's only one seller of a good. A monopsony is when there's one buyer of a good. And Medicare would be the buyer on all of our behalfs. So if there's only one buyer or seller of a good, guess what?

That buyer gets to dictate the price.

Brian Lehrer (2:22)

Monopsony.

There's your vocabulary word for today. About a minute of Abdulel Saeed, the Democratic candidate for US Senate in Michigan, for Medicare for All. By contrast, here's about a minute of Republican candidate Mike Rogers, who gave these reasons as some of why he's against it. This aired on C-SPAN over the weekend.

Mike Rogers (2:44)

When you look at something like Medicare for All, the seniors who have paid in since they've been 18 years old, remember, they pay in at 18 all the way to 65 before they get it. So they don't get an ounce of Medicare between 18 and 65 They're fundamentally throwing the system up, and now you get, when you pay in at 18, you get at 18

You can only imagine what that does to your quality of care. So you're losing all of that revenue for all of those years to pay for a system with people. It's about 2.5 million people here in Michigan. So they're going to get less health care, less choice of their doctor.

It's going to be more rationed. So in the same system that is just across the river in Michigan, if you get a health care or a cancer diagnosis, it's 27 weeks on average before you get treatment. If you're a breast cancer survivor, that could be a death sentence. Here in America, it's less than a month, and if it has some kind of urgency to it, you can actually even get it sooner. And so it doesn't really do what they're saying it's going to do.

Brian Lehrer (3:53)

So Mike Rogers, there in one correction, I think he made a slip of the tongue there. So just so you're clear on what he was talking about when he said, just across the river in Michigan, I think he really meant just across in Canada. If you get a health care or a cancer diagnosis, it's 27 weeks on average before you get treatment. We will fact check that claim.

He said, here in America, it's less than a month. So he was making contrast with Canada there, I believe. But Mike Rogers, there, Abdul El-Sayed before that, to launch 30 issues in 30 days, issue number one, how to make affordable health care in American right. We'll explore other approaches than Medicare for All as well. With me for this is Julie Rovner, Chief Washington Correspondent for KFF Health News and host of their weekly podcast, What the Health? Previously, as some of you know, she was an NPR Health Policy Correspondent. She is also author of the reference book, Healthcare Politics and Policy A to Z, now in its third edition. Julie, always great to have you. Thank you for helping with this launch. Welcome back to WNYC.