Blog

By John N. Kastanis

It’s a wonder how health care got minimal coverage during last year’s presidential campaign. During the 2019 Democrat candidates’ debates, we got to hear Senator Elizabeth Warren’s new “Medicare for All” plan, followed by Bernie Sanders’ call for a single payor system. But after closer examination, many asked how can we expand Medicare when we can’t even afford it now due to the exorbitant costs needed to cover all residents and the estimated huge tax increases to pay for it all. During which time, Sanders’ state of Vermont abandoned in 2014 its multi-year effort to implement America’s first statewide single-payer health system. When the debates were over in early 2020, most editorials deemed these plans unworkable, while COVID-19 completely detracted our attention on how we would overcome this dreadful virus and the resulting pandemic.