DAVE ROSS

Ross: Is coronavirus what finally gets us Medicare For All?

Apr 3, 2020, 7:18 AM

coronavirus, medicare...

Vice President Mike Pence and President Trump. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A question that keeps coming up at the daily White House briefings is this: What happens to middle class people who don’t have health insurance?

Ross: Why Medicare For All might just be worth the risk

That leads to the inevitable question concerning whether the government will pay for coronavirus testing and treatment.

Here’s how the Vice President answered that on Thursday:

“We don’t want any American to worry about the cost of getting a test or the cost of getting treatment,” he stated.

Now that’s what Obamacare is for – or what’s left of it. It covers uninsured middle class Americans with pre-existing conditions like COVID-19.

But the Vice President didn’t mention it, because of course the Trump administration has sworn to get rid of Obamacare.

Instead, the Vice President said they are considering a plan “to compensate the hospitals directly for any Corona treatment that they provide to uninsured Americans.”

Taking care of your mental health during a pandemic

Compensate the hospitals directly… which is what Medicare does for people over 65.

That’s basically Medicare for middle class people who get COVID-19. Well if that’s the plan, at some point someone will ask: Well, if you’re doing this for Americans with COVID-19, why wouldn’t you also do it for Americans with other even deadlier diseases?

Could it be that we wake up from this nightmare and find ourselves in an America that –without electing Bernie Sanders – ends up with Medicare For All?

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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Ross: Is coronavirus what finally gets us Medicare For All?