Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States published an opinion article on 10th of October regarding’Medicare to All’ in USA TODAY. Medicare for All is a democratic proposal aiming to provide medical facilities to all Americans. By this proposal,all private players will be completely eliminated and a government controlled single operator of health care system will be established.Trump feels that even though it sounds so beneficial to the public, in practice this would result in total chaos and the cost of this proposal is estimated to be around $32.6 trillion for the first ten years.
The article which Donald Trump wrote contained falsehood in almost every statement. Most of the misleading statements have already been exposed, some of which Trump already knows but chose to ignore. Medicare for All is a high budget proposal that raise serious questions about how such a drastic transformation can be made from the present health care system.
In the article, Trump has mentioned that the new proposal would terminate Medicare and the seniors will be removed of the benefits for which they have paid. But according to the Congressional research service, Sanders’s Medicare for All essentially means that a single entity,the federal government would be responsible for paying all the bills. The current Medicare is for the elderly and the disabled, those under 65 usually get insurance either by Obama care, the individual employer insurance or through the state health care system the Medicaid which is designed especially for the poor. Medicare for All eliminates private players that is the insurance by the employers and improves benefits for senior by reducing the cost and by including dental, hearing and visual aids which are not covered under the present health care system. After four years the age limit will be reduced covering younger age groups.
The second point that Trump had mentioned is that he would protect health plans for patients with pre-existing conditions. But in reality he broke it as it is evident when his administration failed to defend the Affordable Care Act. The premiums have also gradually increased on an average just at a lower pace when compared with the past.
Trump says the reason why he fights so hard against Democrats plan is that because he had promised to protect Medicare to the great seniors. The date for the depletion of funds for Medicare keeps advancing Trump’s rule. Earlier it was 2029 but the present projection shows 2026. The Medicare is financed mainly by the payroll taxes but the rate of people retiring per day has increased to 10,000 resulting in fewer workers thus pressurizing long term funding.
Trump says Democrats have harmed seniors by forcing to pay for Obamacare by deducting more than $800 billion from the funds. In fact the amount was deducted from the health care providers and not from the beneficiaries. Moreover Trump had proposed $350 billion cut in Medicare in his budget. The fourth point that he states is that the proposal would end seniors’ dependency on the benefits for which they have worked tirelessly their entire life. But Sanders’s plan clearly explains the benefits of the seniors. Finally he attracts the proposal by saying that it would but an end to doctors and hospitals and that seniors would have to stand in queue for meeting their favorite doctor. This might be partially true as a sudden change will always create some sort of chaos in the beginning but the other countries have managed to operate on single- payer system at a very low cost than the United States.OneofTrump’sabsurdpointisthatMedicarewouldendchoicetotheseniorsbutinrealityallthedoctorsandhospitalsarepaidbythegovernment. He also accuses Democrats as radical socialist and that they see Venezuela as a economy model. In truth, Venezuela is falling after years of dictatorship who depleted completely the oil wealth of Venezuela, no Democratic leader would consider Venezuela for an economic model.
Source 1: www.washingtonpost.com
Source 2: www.politifact.com
