"No more half measures. No more
healthcare for some. We can win Medicare for All," Ady Barkan, a
California man with a terminal illness, told lawmakers.
Daniel
Uria & Nicholas Sakelaris UPDATED APRIL 30, 2019 AT 12:50
PM
April 30 (UPI) -- The
House rules committee on Tuesday began the first-ever hearing on the Medicare
for All universal healthcare proposal, and heard from a terminally ill
California man who detailed his experience in the existing system.
The panel set the hearing
after the healthcare reform package was introduced by Washington Rep. Pramila
Jayapal, which proposes a single government insurance plan for all Americans.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sandershas
introduced a similar plan in the upper chamber.
Tuesday marked the first
time congressional lawmakers heard testimony on the Medicare for All proposal.
Author and activist Ady Barkan -- who has terminal amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig disease
-- was the main speaker.
Barkan said he requires
full-time home care that costs about $9,000 per month, and that's in addition
to what his insurance already covers. Speaking with a computer-aided device, because
ALS no longer allows him to speak, he said American families are being
confronted with serious health issues -- and he considered it a duty to cross
the country and wake Congress' conscious to the issue.
"Never before have I
had to rely on a synthetic voice to lay out my arguments, convey my most
passionately held beliefs, tell the details of my personal story," he told lawmakers.
"On the day we are
born and on the day we die, and on so many days in between, all of us need
medical care." he added. "And yet in this country, the wealthiest in
the history of human civilization, we do not have an effective or fair or
rational system for delivering that care.
"You and your
constituents are well aware of the problems: high costs, bad outcomes,
mind-boggling bureaucracy, racial disparities, bankruptcies, geographic
inequities, and obscene profiteering."
Barkan said the United
States never asks how it will pay for wars or corporate tax cuts, but when it
comes to healthcare it's always the first question asked.
Jayapal first introduced
the legislation in February, saying it
would eliminate co-payments, premiums and deductibles for patients while also
providing universal comprehensive coverage with controlled costs. She said the
average U.S. family would see nearly a 15 percent reduction in costs as well as
"better and comprehensive care." She said her plan would be available
for all Americans within a two-year span.
More than 100 members of
Congress, including House Rules Committee Chairman James McGovern, have co-sponsored the bill.
The plan has received
support from multiple 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls, including Sen.
Bernie Sanders -- who introduced his own version of
the legislation in the Senate -- and Sens. Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand,
as well as former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke.
A recent Gallup poll found
Americans borrowed $88 billion last year to
pay for medical care.
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla, called it a "radical
bill" and said Democrats have "not told us how much this massive new
program would cost, who would pay for it, and how much taxes would have to go
up ... to pay for this program."
Republicans invited George
Mason University senior researcher Charles Blahous and Galen Institute
President Grace-Marie Turner, who have warned about the plan's potential cost,
to testify Tuesday.
Blahous published a study for the
university's Mercatus Center, which found Medicare for All would add
approximately $32.6 trillion to the federal budget during its first 10 years.
Turner, in an op-ed,
warned about potential consequences of the coverage and taxes.
"Everyone would be
required to give up the coverage they have now including 173 million Americans
who get health insurance at work and taxes would be much higher to finance the
$32 trillion in added government spending over the next decade," she
wrote.
During his testimony,
Blahous said the plan would cost the average American $10,000.
The list of other witnesses
for Tuesday's hearing included experts from the Commonwealth Fund, the Center
on Economic and Policy Research and the National Medical Association.
Barkan ended his testimony
with an emotional plea to lawmakers.
"We have a once in a
generation opportunity to win what we really deserve," he said. "No
more half measures. No more healthcare for some. We can win Medicare for All.
This is our Congress. This
is our democracy. And this is our future for the making."
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