Over the years, there has been some push to create a universal healthcare system in the United States. So far, every attempt to get that started has been knocked down by conservative lawmakers. A new piece of legislation could open the door for individual states to create a universal healthcare system.
Right now, the closest thing that the United States has to a universal healthcare system is Medicare. Of course, it isn’t truly universal. Most people who are eligible for Medicare are age 65 or older. Some younger people, who have certain types of disabilities, also can qualify for Medicare. This means that Medicare doesn’t cover absolutely everyone.
There is a piece of legislation that is being drafted by Representative Jim McDermott. He is a Democrat from Washington. If this legislation is passed into law, it would create a mechanism by which individual states could request federal funding for their own universal healthcare system after that system has been established.
This is big news! It would enable states to create what might be called a “Medicare-for all” program. It would expand the current Medicare program to cover many more people. For example, In California, it is estimated that “Medicare-for-all” would cover around 7 million uninsured people. Nationwide, it would expand coverage to about 30 million of the 50 million Americans who don’t have health insurance coverage. The bill has not yet been formerly introduced to Congress.
There are many reasons why so many Americans lack health insurance. One problem has to do with the way that health insurance coverage is tied to employment. Some employers offer their workers an employer sponsored health insurance plan. People who qualify for that coverage often are able to cover their spouses with it, too. However, if that worker loses his or her job, their health insurance coverage also disappears.
Other people take a job that says it offers health insurance coverage, only to learn that their employer has put measures in place to ensure that the new worker never qualifies for it. For example, some employers will only offer health insurance to full-time workers. They might define full-time workers as someone who works 40 hours a week. Then, they require managers to schedule people for 38 hours a week.
Also, there are several people who don’t have the type of employment that comes with health insurance coverage. This group often cannot afford to purchase it from a private health insurance company. Therefore, they are going without any coverage at all. The legislation that will soon be proposed by Representative Jim McDermott could change this situation.
Image by NASA Earth Observatory on Flickr