TRICARE For All: Wrong For Iowa And America
Grace-Marie Turner | Forbes
Medicare for All is a catchy title promising a utopian system of free health care with easy access to any hospital or physician. Despite its appeal, support plummets when people learn about the inevitable rationing, waiting lists, soaring taxes, and loss of current health coverage.
A proposal being debated in Iowa’s U.S. Senate race would put all Americans on a government program that would be a twin of Medicare for All, via TRICARE.
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This “could lead to a shortage of providers, longer wait times, and changes in the quality of care, especially if patient demand increased substantially,” the CBO reported.
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We know where government-run health care plans end up: The government tries to save money, it continues to ratchet down payments to providers, and ultimately care is rationed and waiting lines ensue. The most vulnerable patients would be the most severely impacted as they try to navigate a complex, bureaucratic system to get the care they need.
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Instead, TRICARE for All would mean a government takeover of health care the United States. Medicare and Medicaid would end. In Iowa, for example, more than 1.8 million people would lose their private health plans, and everyone would be forced onto this massive new government program. Many private health insurance companies would close and their nearly 140,000 employees would have to find other ways to support themselves and their families.
The goal is to give everyone the same or better coverage as TRICARE with a choice of the plans and health care arrangements that suit them best—with extra help for the most vulnerable. TRICARE for All is not the solution.
BACKGROUND:
On Iowa Press hosted by Iowa PBS on June 24, Mike Franken discussed his government takeover of healthcare plan. He said, “However it mutates, into use the various words, the Medicare for all, the single payer, universal, et cetera. However it may become, that’s what every American deserves. We will be a more efficient and a healthier population if we take a clue from the U.S Military and just copy the type of healthcare they provide.”
