WVU in the News: What Medicare For All could mean for WV
With the presidential campaign season in full swing, Democratic candidates have made Medicare For All a household term, leaving many questioning what such a policy would look like in practice.
Proponents of some form of the measure include Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who wrote The Medicare For All Act of 2019, to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who is heavily backing universal health care in her campaigning.
In Sanders' bill, the United States would operate on a single-payer, universal coverage health care system, and patients would get to choose their doctors and would no longer need to pay for deductibles, premiums or copays.
"The proposal would roll out the current Medicare program to everyone in the U.S., not just those who are older than 65 or disabled, and would use this system as the only health insurance plan for all Americans," said Dr. Lindsay Allen, assistant professor with the West Virginia University School of Public Health. "Instead of having a bunch of private insurance companies, Medicaid, and CHIP, we would just have one insurance provider, which would be the federal government."