HEALTH CARE POLICY
President Lyndon Johnson signs Medicare legislation July 30, 1965, with former President Harry Truman, First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, former First Lady Bess Truman, Senator Hubert Humphrey.
In the 2019-20 biennium, we promote a policy that expands Medicare to make health coverage available to more Americans, not fewer Americans, with a goal that all Americans will have health care available through a single-payer system. Until that single-payer goal is reached, we promote fully funding Veterans health care services to make enough staff and facilities available so that Veterans get care when they need it.
Our Principle: Health Care is a Right. Profiteering from Health Care is a WRONG. A moral society has an obligation to make health care available to the members of society. The resources necessary to make health care available should be provided by the members of the society acting together. The ability of an individual to access necessary health care should not be limited by that individual's personal resources alone.
Our Objective: The United States should have a single-payer system of financing health care for all people. The cost of that system should be shared by all members of society in an equitable manner. We support Senate bill 1129, introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders, the Medicare for All Act of 2019.
First steps:
(1) Immediately: (a) Expand the services that Medicare covers, to include dental, vision, and mental health care. (b) Eliminate deductibles, co-pays, and premiums. (c) Expand persons eligible to be covered to include all persons born since January 1, 2001.
(2) In the first year: Expand persons eligible to be covered to include all persons age 55 and older. This initially takes that part of the population that has the greatest need for medical services, out of the population to be served by private insurors, reducing the costs to private insurors and hopefully reducing the premiums charged by private insurors to their remaining customers. This may also encourage employees to take earlier retirements, when they achieve Medicare coverage at age 55 so that they no longer have to rely on continuing employment in order to have health care coverage. Such early retirements by older workers will open up higher-level jobs to younger workers, thereby increasing employment opportunities and promotions all through the employment system. Reducing the age at which Medicare is available is particularly meaningful for Americans who are employed in jobs requiring extensive physical labor, as the construction industry and some manufacturing employment, where the personal physical exertion required by those jobs is much more difficult for older bodies to accomplish without incurring adverse health effects.
(3) In the second year: Expand persons eligible to be covered to include all persons age 45 and older.
(4) In the third year: Expand persons eligible to be covered to include all persons age 35 and older.
(5) In the fourth year: Expand persons eligible to be covered to include all persons.
| The Democratic Party Platform of 2016 |
| The Faithful Budget Acting With Mercy And Justice As One Nation Under God. |
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