How I Became a Supporter of Medicare for All
In May, when I announced that I was running for Congress, a reporter asked me if I support single payer healthcare. I responded by telling her that I believe that everyone should have high quality, affordable healthcare that the government also can afford.
She directly asked me why I would not say “single-payer.” I told her it was a buzzword. I said reforming our current system is complicated and could not be boiled down to a pithy phrase. She pushed harder, asking me to say “single-payer.” I repeated that I believe that every American citizen deserves healthcare, but that I would not use that phrase because it was not my phrase, it was hers.
This interview was the beginning of a journey for me.
My journey continued last month when I went to South Florida to help my mother who had been hospitalized just before Hurricane Irma was supposed to make landfall.
She has had five different cancer diagnoses during my lifetime. She raised me as a single mom without much help from my father and with financial help from my grandparents. She had Medicare and was on disability because the cancers kept her from being able to work for the past seventeen years.
When I looked at her kitchen table, I could not help but notice the stacks of bills that kept me from seeing her face while I sat across from her. The bills were from all of the tests and procedures she had leading up to her hospitalization. They added up to thousands of dollars from just one month of medical interventions. This was in addition to the $800 a month she is paying for her prescription drugs. My mother was drowning in medical costs, even though she had Medicare coverage.
When I returned from Florida, right before Irma hit (as if I did not have enough to worry about with my mom), I was asked by a man on social media if I support “Medicare for All.” I said that I was concerned about that model based on my mother’s experience. I also felt that the concept of Medicare for All seemed pretty unrealistic in a place like Nebraska, a state that did not even expand Medicaid. Finally, I told him I wanted to make sure we provide healthcare for everyone without adding to the national debt.
I’m still concerned about all of these things. But there’s a difference now. The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act is the best idea we have right now. It ensures that Americans have medical care without having to be burdened by outrageous costs.
After carefully reading through the bill, after studying hundreds of articles debating the idea and spending hours discussing the bill with my husband, I kept coming back to one simple idea: everyone would get healthcare.
Over the course of the past few weeks, I have read people’s opinions on social media– both positive and negative — about my coming out in favor of this bill. There is a lot of misinformation being circulated about the cost of the bill to the taxpayers, who already pay for a system that is not working as it should. Most viable analyses show that the cost of the program would be less than what we already pay. They show a huge benefit to employers who have had to take on the economic and administrative burden of providing healthcare. As a nonprofit CEO, I know first- hand what this impact would be for businesses — saving them a tremendous amount that could be invested in the American economy and even be used to raise employee salaries. I also know that the bill would mean people would not have to choose whether to spend their disability checks on prescription drugs or food.
My journey does not stop here. On September 19, 2017, my mother passed away. The first thing I noticed when I went to her home was the stack of bills sitting on her table that I am now responsible for addressing. This is absolutely the last thing my family and I need to deal with while mourning the loss of the most important person in my life. No one should have to be worried about medical bills while coping with the loss of a loved one.
I am still listening to people and having incredible conversations about the role of the government in investing in and protecting its citizens. It seems that the most important thing to everyone is that we come together and find a solution now.
Healthcare, like other issues we face as a country, is complicated. But maybe we can come together to find middle ground by agreeing that we all want our mothers to be healthy, free from medical debt, and free from worrying about paying their stacks of medical bills in the middle of a hurricane or at the end of their life.