Viewpoints: Lessons On Why America Needs Single-Payer Health Care; Medicaid Has Turned Into An Entitlement Program For The Middle Class

The Washington Post: Why We Need Single-Payer Health Care — And ‘Health Justice’
In “Health Justice Now,” author and activist Timothy Faust has written the best concise explanation of why the United States needs single-payer health care — and needs to widen the definition of health care itself. Faust has experience in the health-insurance industry as a data scientist and in government by helping to sign people up for Obamacare. In other words, he has lived in the two bellies of America’s health-care beast: in an industry “in which the question of ‘Who gets to receive healthcare, and when?’… is determined by private profitability,” and in government programs that, while improved by Obamacare, remain woefully inadequate. (James Downie, 8/14)

The Wall Street Journal: ObamaCare’s Medicaid Deception
ObamaCare wasn’t supposed to give free health insurance to everybody. The Affordable Care Act’s authors expected the poor would enroll in Medicaid, while those with higher incomes would buy coverage through the new insurance exchanges, with subsidies that decrease as income rises. It isn’t working. A study published this week by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that in several Medicaid-expansion states most people who gained coverage have enrolled in Medicaid regardless of their income. In practice, ObamaCare has turned Medicaid into an entitlement program for the middle class. (Brian Blase and Aaron Yelowitz, 8/14)

The Hill: Medicare For All: Fears And Facts
Each candidate has their own way to fix what ails health insurance. Everyone claimed “Medicare” at the heart of their strategy. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) urged sweeping reform, while former Vice President Joe Biden and others advocated tinkering at the margins, stoking fear of big change. What does it all mean? (James G. Kahn and Elliot Marseille, 8/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Bernie’s Medicare-For-All Bailout
Usually politicians pass a bailout to clean up a mess they’ve created in the past, but Bernie Sanders is now promising cash up front. Witness the democratic socialist’s opening offer to the hospitals he’d bankrupt with his Medicare-for-All bill. Mr. Sanders last month suggested a $20 billion federal bailout fund for struggling hospitals. He announced this plan in Philadelphia, where the city’s Hahnemann Hospital is in bankruptcy proceedings. He spins the failure of the hospital as a tale of corporate greed perpetrated by a private-equity firm. (8/14)

The Washington Post: Medicare-For-All Would Help Pay For Long-Term Care. Why Don’t More People Know That?
When Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) spoke about Medicare-for-all at the July 30 Democratic presidential debate, he talked about how it would improve coverage for people currently receiving it. “For senior citizens, it will finally include dental care, hearing aids and eyeglasses,” he said. But Sanders forgot to mention it would also help senior citizens pay for long-term care, something Medicare doesn’t do now. Sanders should not forget that again. Indeed, he should make long-term care the first thing he mentions when talking about how Medicare-for-all would help senior citizens. (Helaine Olen, 8/14)

The New York Times: The Ethical Mess Of Our Health Care System
Whether or not the administration succeeds, our health care system will remain sorely lacking in basic justice and economic efficiency. It is a system that too often creates perverse incentives favoring the overtreatment of diseases. To avoid this, we must start treating sick people fairly. Such a path exists: Rather than repeal and replace the A.C.A., we need to revise and reinforce it. With about 90 percent of Americans now covered by health insurance, the A.C.A. was highly successful in improving our irrational system by expanding coverage for effective treatments while also reining in some spending. (Amy Gutmann and Jonathan D. Moreno, 8/14)

San Jose Mercury News: Paid Family Leave Should Be A Right, Not A Luxury
Any parent can tell you that paid family leave isn’t a luxury vacation. It is essential in providing mothers with lower rates of stress, isolation and depression, and increases the likelihood of breastfeeding.In a society that often requires two incomes to survive as a family of three, let alone four, paid family leave increases the likelihood that working moms return to work and are paid better in the future. (Jonathan Rubinsky, 8/14)

Los Angeles Times: Want To Buy Some Insulin Or Other Lifesaving Medicine? Go To Canada
Last week, I walked into a small-town pharmacy in rural Canada in search of lifesaving medicine: insulin. I don’t suffer from diabetes. But an estimated 30 million Americans do, and 1.5 million of them need insulin injections to stay alive. They’re facing a catastrophe: the price of insulin has nearly tripled over the last decade. Many cash-strapped diabetics without good insurance have resorted to rationing their supply. Some have died. That shouldn’t happen in the world’s richest country. Nor does it need to happen. The proof is next door in Canada. (Doyle McManus, 8/14)