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After an industry front group argued that the "free market" is filling the gap for vulnerable people amid the coronavirus, Students for a National Health Program (SNaHP), a membership organization made up of medical school students and which advocates for Medicare for All, took issue and responded. (Photo: National Nurses United / flickr / cc)
'The Free Market Is Working,' Declares For-Profit Health Industry Front Group. No, Say Medicare for All Advocates, 'It Is Not.'
"It is not doing a good job. Never has. Never will."
May 11, 2020
While the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic have only intensified calls to do away with the costly and deadly for-profit health insurance industry in the United States, the corporate-backed Partnership for America's Health Care Future, an industry lobby group formed in 2018 to combat Medicare for All, wants people to believe that the so-called "free market" is doing just fine to take care of people's needs amid the outbreak.
After the lobby group shared such a message on social media Sunday, however, Students for a National Health Program (SNaHP), a membership organization made up of medical school students and which advocates for Medicare for All, took issue and responded.
\u201cIt is not doing a good job. Never has. Never will. #WorkingTogether is not working for all.\u201d— Students for a National Health Program (@Students for a National Health Program) 1589221786
As part of it's industry-backed PR push, the lobby group--also know by its acronym P4AHCF--claimed that it public-private partnerships and innovative programs are filling "the gaps Medicare and Medicaid can't."
On Monday, P4AHCF declared in a separate tweet that its "members are #WorkingTogether to strengthen the employer-provided coverage more than 180 million Americans rely on." That message arrived on the heels of a new analysis published last week that showed an estimated 43 million Americans could lose their employer-provided health insurance this year as the economic downturn triggered by Covid-19 has skyrocketed unemployment to levels not seen since the Great Depression.
As Common Dreams reported Sunday, the report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Urban Institute is just the latest to illustrate the failures of an health system that ties coverage to employment. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the nation's most high-profile and backer of Medicare for All, has made this argument repeatedly:
\u201cNumber of Americans between the ages of 0 and 64 at risk of losing their health insurance during this crisis: 43 million.\n\nNumber of Americans 65 and older at risk of losing their health insurance: 0\n\nThat is why we need #MedicareForAll.\nhttps://t.co/UENVmyucb4\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1589155440
On Monday, journalist Jon Walker published a new piece for The American Prospect titled, "A Guide to the Nightmare of Getting Health Insurance in a Pandemic," which detailed the absurdity of the U.S. system.
\u201cMy not so fun flowchart of what a nightmare shopping for the best health insurance is after losing your employer insurance during a pandemic produced depression. So simple right? https://t.co/Rxoesf5Gjq\u201d— Jon Walker (@Jon Walker) 1589207282
Walker paints a picture of a healthcare system that is decidedly "not working" for those who need it most.
"Losing your health insurance when you lose your job is confusing in the best of times and even more so during the coronavirus crisis," Walker writes. "In addition to needing to deal with all the inherent complexities of our system, there are now numerous additional economic, political, and health factors that make it very difficult to know what is financially the best choice."
So is the so-called "free market" working?
\u201cWe will continue to air our grievances against commercial health insurance until the day we finally win #SinglePayer #MedicareForAll.\u201d— Physicians for a National Health Program (@Physicians for a National Health Program) 1589232007
Did it ever?
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While the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic have only intensified calls to do away with the costly and deadly for-profit health insurance industry in the United States, the corporate-backed Partnership for America's Health Care Future, an industry lobby group formed in 2018 to combat Medicare for All, wants people to believe that the so-called "free market" is doing just fine to take care of people's needs amid the outbreak.
After the lobby group shared such a message on social media Sunday, however, Students for a National Health Program (SNaHP), a membership organization made up of medical school students and which advocates for Medicare for All, took issue and responded.
\u201cIt is not doing a good job. Never has. Never will. #WorkingTogether is not working for all.\u201d— Students for a National Health Program (@Students for a National Health Program) 1589221786
As part of it's industry-backed PR push, the lobby group--also know by its acronym P4AHCF--claimed that it public-private partnerships and innovative programs are filling "the gaps Medicare and Medicaid can't."
On Monday, P4AHCF declared in a separate tweet that its "members are #WorkingTogether to strengthen the employer-provided coverage more than 180 million Americans rely on." That message arrived on the heels of a new analysis published last week that showed an estimated 43 million Americans could lose their employer-provided health insurance this year as the economic downturn triggered by Covid-19 has skyrocketed unemployment to levels not seen since the Great Depression.
As Common Dreams reported Sunday, the report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Urban Institute is just the latest to illustrate the failures of an health system that ties coverage to employment. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the nation's most high-profile and backer of Medicare for All, has made this argument repeatedly:
\u201cNumber of Americans between the ages of 0 and 64 at risk of losing their health insurance during this crisis: 43 million.\n\nNumber of Americans 65 and older at risk of losing their health insurance: 0\n\nThat is why we need #MedicareForAll.\nhttps://t.co/UENVmyucb4\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1589155440
On Monday, journalist Jon Walker published a new piece for The American Prospect titled, "A Guide to the Nightmare of Getting Health Insurance in a Pandemic," which detailed the absurdity of the U.S. system.
\u201cMy not so fun flowchart of what a nightmare shopping for the best health insurance is after losing your employer insurance during a pandemic produced depression. So simple right? https://t.co/Rxoesf5Gjq\u201d— Jon Walker (@Jon Walker) 1589207282
Walker paints a picture of a healthcare system that is decidedly "not working" for those who need it most.
"Losing your health insurance when you lose your job is confusing in the best of times and even more so during the coronavirus crisis," Walker writes. "In addition to needing to deal with all the inherent complexities of our system, there are now numerous additional economic, political, and health factors that make it very difficult to know what is financially the best choice."
So is the so-called "free market" working?
\u201cWe will continue to air our grievances against commercial health insurance until the day we finally win #SinglePayer #MedicareForAll.\u201d— Physicians for a National Health Program (@Physicians for a National Health Program) 1589232007
Did it ever?
While the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic have only intensified calls to do away with the costly and deadly for-profit health insurance industry in the United States, the corporate-backed Partnership for America's Health Care Future, an industry lobby group formed in 2018 to combat Medicare for All, wants people to believe that the so-called "free market" is doing just fine to take care of people's needs amid the outbreak.
After the lobby group shared such a message on social media Sunday, however, Students for a National Health Program (SNaHP), a membership organization made up of medical school students and which advocates for Medicare for All, took issue and responded.
\u201cIt is not doing a good job. Never has. Never will. #WorkingTogether is not working for all.\u201d— Students for a National Health Program (@Students for a National Health Program) 1589221786
As part of it's industry-backed PR push, the lobby group--also know by its acronym P4AHCF--claimed that it public-private partnerships and innovative programs are filling "the gaps Medicare and Medicaid can't."
On Monday, P4AHCF declared in a separate tweet that its "members are #WorkingTogether to strengthen the employer-provided coverage more than 180 million Americans rely on." That message arrived on the heels of a new analysis published last week that showed an estimated 43 million Americans could lose their employer-provided health insurance this year as the economic downturn triggered by Covid-19 has skyrocketed unemployment to levels not seen since the Great Depression.
As Common Dreams reported Sunday, the report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Urban Institute is just the latest to illustrate the failures of an health system that ties coverage to employment. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the nation's most high-profile and backer of Medicare for All, has made this argument repeatedly:
\u201cNumber of Americans between the ages of 0 and 64 at risk of losing their health insurance during this crisis: 43 million.\n\nNumber of Americans 65 and older at risk of losing their health insurance: 0\n\nThat is why we need #MedicareForAll.\nhttps://t.co/UENVmyucb4\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1589155440
On Monday, journalist Jon Walker published a new piece for The American Prospect titled, "A Guide to the Nightmare of Getting Health Insurance in a Pandemic," which detailed the absurdity of the U.S. system.
\u201cMy not so fun flowchart of what a nightmare shopping for the best health insurance is after losing your employer insurance during a pandemic produced depression. So simple right? https://t.co/Rxoesf5Gjq\u201d— Jon Walker (@Jon Walker) 1589207282
Walker paints a picture of a healthcare system that is decidedly "not working" for those who need it most.
"Losing your health insurance when you lose your job is confusing in the best of times and even more so during the coronavirus crisis," Walker writes. "In addition to needing to deal with all the inherent complexities of our system, there are now numerous additional economic, political, and health factors that make it very difficult to know what is financially the best choice."
So is the so-called "free market" working?
\u201cWe will continue to air our grievances against commercial health insurance until the day we finally win #SinglePayer #MedicareForAll.\u201d— Physicians for a National Health Program (@Physicians for a National Health Program) 1589232007
Did it ever?
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