Two of America’s most outspoken critics of the for-profit health care system have welcomed billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s criticism of the country’s massive health spending, saying Musk, a cabinet nominee in the incoming Trump administration, Suggested participation in policy calls. Medicare for All.
Musk’s social media posts drew the attention of Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). Both senators last year reintroduced legislation to expand Medicare coverage to all Americans, a long-standing push for Medicare coverage. The for-profit health care system will be replaced by a government-run program, a single-payer system, just like in every other wealthy country in the world.
“Don’t Americans need to get their money’s worth?” Musk posted a graph provided by the nonpartisan Peter G. Indicating that it had reached $1,055 per year, he asked: This is hundreds of dollars more expensive than in countries such as Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
“That’s right,” Sanders said, repeating statistics he has frequently shared. He criticized the country’s $4.5 trillion health care system. annual allowance.
“We waste hundreds of billions of dollars a year on health care administration costs, which make insurance company CEOs and wealthy stockholders incredibly wealthy while 85 million Americans People are either uninsured or underinsured,” he added. “Healthcare is a human right. We need Medicare for all.”
Jayapal added that there is a “solution” to America’s exorbitant healthcare costs. “It’s called ‘Medicare for All.'”
Musk was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to head a new federal agency he is seeking to create called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Sanders expressed support for some of the Pentagon’s missions, saying the plan to “cut wasteful spending” could be used by the Pentagon, which fails annual spending audits. He said there is.
But Sanders harshly criticized the economic system and business practices that have made Musk the world’s richest man with a net worth of $343.8 billion.
Another progressive, The Lever’s David Sirota, suggested last month that DOGE could be used to eliminate the nation’s vast health care bureaucracy and replace it with Medicare for All. , points to a 2020 report from the Republican-controlled Congressional Budget Office that says government-run health care programs will save an estimated $650 billion each year.
“Such a system can accomplish this in part because Medicare’s 2% administrative cost is much lower than the bureaucratic, profit-grabbing private health insurance industry’s 17% administrative cost,” Sirota said. he writes.
Amid online debate about the greed of commercial insurance giants, Mr. Musk caught the attention of Medicare for All supporters.
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield announced Thursday following public backlash following Wednesday’s killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, sparking discussion of widespread anger at the U.S. health care system. , reversed a decision to suspend payments for surgical anesthesia if the surgery exceeds a certain period of time. limit. The American Society of Anesthesiologists said patients could end up paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs if Anthem stopped paying doctors in full for pain management for complex surgeries.
National Nurses United, which advocates for a government-run health care system, called on Musk and others who support the widely supported proposal to “join the movement to win Medicare for All.”
“It has been proven time and time again that the most efficiently run health care systems in the world are single-payer systems,” the group said.
