Opinion: Bernie Sanders’s Medicare-for-all advocates what the U.S. already does indirectly
By Charles Lane Charles Lane Editorial writer and columnist specializing in economic and fiscal policy Email Bio Follow Opinion writer April 15 at 5:40 PM 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.
Section 102, on Page 4 of the bill, labeled “UNIVERSAL ENTITLEMENT,” conditions eligibility on “residency” in the United States — not “legal residency” — and leaves it up to the secretary of health and human services to define what counts as “residency.” Section 104, “NON-DISCRIMINATION,” on Page 5, bars exclusion from services “on the basis of . . . related medical conditions .”
It would seem to be only a matter of time before Republicans begin attacking Medicare-for-all — which is backed not only by Sanders but also by many other Democrats, including some rivals for the presidential nomination — for guaranteeing so-called illegal aliens taxpayer-funded dentist visits, while enshrining abortion-on-demand at public expense.
Meanwhile, the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act requires all Medicare-participating hospitals to treat patients in their emergency rooms, regardless of whether they have insurance. Accordingly, undocumented immigrants flock to ERs, with the unreimbursed cost passed along to everyone else.
Even more precisely: a human right for people who live more or less permanently in the United States, with or without legal authorization, but not so-called medical tourists from abroad just popping in to the United States from overseas to get free services. His bill authorizes the HHS secretary to define residency in such a way as to prevent that form of system-gaming. Good luck!
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