Medicare for All —— A Citizen's Guide

I am nearly finished with this book and could not recommend it more highly to anyone who actually cares about healthcare in America. People directly involved in the healthcare system, providers, managers, billers, etc. are often so caught up in day to day tasks that they have no idea of what is going on in the big picture. Consumers often only understand our system in terms of how it affects them personally or people they actually know. Moreover both these groups tend to be influenced by their political leanings. This carefully researched bird’s eye view of how the industry has morphed over recent decades fairly lays out how crucial the need is to adapt our system to fit today’s needs. It fairly discusses the pros and cons of our current system, a full blown Medicare for All single payer system, and various intermediary plans as they would affect all parties. Most importantly this book calls for consideration of HUMAN VALUES as a crucial component in our healthcare decisions - a concept that seems to have escaped our notice in recent decades.

I've been a Medicare for All activist with PNHP (Physicians for a National Health Program) for about 4 years and wish this excellent book had been available then, as getting my head around this complex topic was very difficult without all the information in a single place. The authors have done a superb job of presenting things in very logical and readable form. It's a testament to their good writing that they did this without a single graph or chart, so non-scientists will have no trouble grasping all the concepts. This is not a liberal tirade; it's a very balanced and clear examination of the terrible fix our healthcare non-system is in and the best way to make it better. We truly can cover everyone and lower costs for most households and businesses, while also addressing unconscionable racial healthcare inequities. Business leaders and politicians should read this book and move rapidly to pass Medicare for All.

This is an excellent book on why we need medicare for all. The healthcare market cannot function on the free market because of the dynamics involved. There is an information asymmetry between patients and doctors because you have to accept whatever treatments the doctor tells you are important. There is price inelasticity because if the price of your life saving drug increases you are forced to pay for it regardless. Moreover, patents give pharmaceutical companies a monopoly on drugs so there is no competition. In addition, hospitals are monopolies or oligopolies in their own region so they can increase the prices as much as they want. This forces insurance companies to consolidate and become monopolies to get a fair negotiation with monopolistic hospitals. The healthcare market is broken and we need to reform it with government regulation. Medicare for all is a solution that works in many European countries, Australia, and Canada. The US can learn about how medicare for all can contain healthcare costs and make healthcare universal for everyone. The government will be able to reduce the administrative costs that currently exist within the system. The government be able to negotiate for lower drug prices since it will be a monopsony (the only buyer in the market). Finally, the government with negotiate with hospitals to get a fair price for healthcare. Please don't listen to the propaganda that Medicare for All is communism since it works extremely well in other developed countries. This is a great book to read on medicare for all.

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