Medicare for All Argument Outline

Pro

*Premature Death
*Pandemics/Superbugs/COVID-19
*Bioterrorism
*Opioids (M4A solves root cause of opioid epidemic and private insurance encourages prescribing pain killers rather than surgery; they also claim government care can better regulate opium distribution)
*Expanding Access Generally saves lives
*The private health care system has a lot of administrative expenses and regulations, causing doctors to quit (more used as an answer to doctor shortages)
*Data — Government run health care means better data control and organization. Data control protects privacy and improves health care because data is shared across doctors and hospita0s.
*Rural Hospitals closing now. (M4A allows them to stay open with bulk payments)
*Disparate Health Impact/Racism/Structural Inequality
*Ethics

  • Moral responsibility for care
  • Equality 
  • (a) Race
  • (b) Gender
  • (c) LGBT
  • (d) Transgender

*Mental health care good
*Abortion access good/Hyde Amendment Repeal good
*COVID
*Health care costs

  • High salaries in private hc increases costs
  • Profits — private companies have to have profits, increasing costs
  • Administrative overhead — lots of it across multiple insurance comapnies
  • No bulk purchasing causes prices to rise
  • M4All reduces these costs — no high salaries, no profits, less administrative needs, bulk purchasing
  • Health care costs hurt the economy

*Economy

  • Health care costs reduce consumer spending
  • Reducing employer health care costs increases wages
  • Reducing health care costs means more hiring
  • M4All is a stimulus
  • Increased productivity
  • Job switching — people locked into current jobs because of HC
  • entrepreneurship — If people have HC they can be entrepreneurs and not have to work for companies

Some teams argue that US growth leads to global growth as a way to undermine the developing world impacts on pharma.
*Immigrant (including illegal/undocumented) health care good
*Military readiness
*Cooperative federalism
*Elections

  • Trump good (M4A means Trump wins)
  • Trump bad

*Lots of administrative complications with private insurance lead to doctor burn out and quitting
*Debt/Deficits answers
Interest rates are low
Selling bonds solves
*Pharm turns
M4Al –> innovation
M4A improves the econ, strong US econ helps developing world
Small biotech better

Con

Economy -(Massive Disruption)
Collapse private insurance industry, Massive unemployment from it
Pharmaceutical Innovation DA. Link through Price controls harming the ability for pharmaceutical companies to invest in R&D. Impact to pharmaceutical company philanthropy and providing drugs to the developing world.
— The are also drug shortages impacts and gene therapy good (solves cancer) impacts.
— Third world drugs/vaccines. High profits mean that companies can afford to give away free drugs
— High drug prices in the US underwrite global drug development
Tax increases (capital gains in particular)
Fraud
Hospital Collapse (reducing payments to hospitals collapses hospitals)
 — rural hospitals, rural hospitals good for women
 — urban hospitals
 — public hospitals
Debt/Deficit

  • High interest rates hurt the economy
  • Investment crowd-out from more federal borrowing
  • Reduced infrastructure spending
  • High debt hurts the market

M4ALL increases taxes, taxes bad
No private insurance – “a private health insurer to sell health insurance coverage that duplicates the benefits provided under this Act” 
Demand for Care
Wait times
Rationing
Doctors quit — Low reimbursement rates means doctors quit and hospitals close
Reduced innovation
More medical care means more opioid distribution, opioid distribution bad
Value based pricing in health care good
Medicare Advantage good
Brain Drain
— doctors quit, have to hire more foreign doctors
— increasing demand generally means more foreign doctors hired
Not enough space
COVID/Flu Season — Socialized medical systems have failed to handle cold/fly season
Immigration (birth or residency)
No solvency – doctors schedules are already limited can’t see current patient needs
Medical Tourism decrease
Abortion Bad
Market key to medical innovation
M4All means Trump wins, Biden would otherwise win and solve climate change
“Micro” insurance better