Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Oops, Medicare-For-All Idea Scored Big With Fox Audience; Europe's Alternatives Outperform Canada's Single Payer
The Washington Post: How Fox News Accidentally Revealed The Truth About Support For Medicare-For-All
It was a moment so surreal, it seemed almost like a dream. During Fox News’s Monday night town hall with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), host Bret Baier asked audience members how many had private health insurance. A large majority raised their hands. He then followed up by asking how many would like to see Medicare-for-all enacted. Almost all the same hands went up — remember, this was on Fox News! — with wild cheers to boot. Baier’s action violated a major rule of lawyers: Never ask a witness on the stand a question to which you don’t know the answer. (Helaine Olen, 4/16)
The Wall Street Journal: Europe’s Alternative To Medicare For All
Sen. Bernie Sanders described his Medicare for All legislation in a Fox News town hall the other night: “What we are talking about is simply a single-payer insurance program, which means that you will have a card which says Medicare on it, you go to any doctor that you want, you will go to any hospital that you want.” He added that “you’re not paying any more premiums, you’re not paying any more copayments, you’re not paying any more deductibles.” In another context, he said the plan “would allow all Americans, regardless of their income, to get the health care they need when they need it.” Not so fast. The experience of Canada, which follows the Sanders model, shows that single payer is not the best way to achieve the goal of access to timely care. (Regina E. Herzlinger and Bacchus Barua, 4/16)
The Washington Post: Bernie Sanders’s Medicare-For-All Advocates What The U.S. Already Does Indirectly
Bernie Sanders’s Medicare-for-all proposal would transform health insurance in the United States, and you don’t have to read very far into the bill he released last week to understand just how far-reaching, and politically controversial, the change would be.In its first few pages, well before you get to the part about zero co-pay coverage for “oral health,” Sanders announces that he would abrogate two long-standing compromises woven into the current patchwork of public and private insurance. (Charles Lane, 4/15)
The New York Times: Trump’s Attacks On Health Care Will Backfire
In Donald Trump’s two-plus years as president, his approach to policymaking has often been defined by an unsavory stew of indecision, inaction, flip-flops and outright lies. Nowhere has this been truer than with health care, where the administration has reversed direction multiple times.A short history: During his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump said he would produce a health care plan that provided universal coverage and also promised that he would not cut Medicare or Medicaid. (Steven Rattner, 4/15)
