Sherry Eason: Medicare for all a suitable ACA replacement plan

Medicare is a single-payer system running at 1.3 percent efficiency. Medicare for all would create one huge risk pool.

Medicare combined with a more fair tax system is, in my opinion, the best way to achieve health access for all.

However, I do not believe the ACA was never supposed to work, the message from many opponents. If many states had not sabotaged the Medicaid expansion efforts and the anti-ACA message had not been delivered so effectively, the ACA may have worked. Notice, I said may have worked.

I have dedicated a very large percentage of my time over the past eight years fighting for improved access to health care collectively and individually. I have chosen to wage my fight for improved access to health care through politics, and I learned from the very best, our President Obama, how to achieve my party’s goals.

Since 2014, I have owned a small agency dedicated to helping others obtain access to life-sustaining care. I am not a cheerleader. I am a person of action.

Those who believe the GOP messaging about keeping the government out of health care are dead wrong. I advise my clients to stay away from Medicare Advantage if the client qualifies for a supplement, because MA plans put people who are not doctors in charge of determining their best course of treatment. Small networks of doctors are another cost-cutting strategy.

At times, the insurance carriers put more value on profits than on the individual. Insurance carriers, however, must contract with the government to provide services to Medicare beneficiaries. If a Medicare plan does not provide good access to healthmcare, the plan receives a low rating and the contract may not be renewed.

The government also makes sure the beneficiary has an opportunity to choose a better plan when this happens. This also fosters a high level of competition, providing a higher level of care.

In order to gain a larger customer base and maintain their star ratings, plans must maintain high standards. Certainly it appears to me that more efficient and effective government participation in our under 65 health care market should be a goal. I see, in the Medicare system, how successfully government and insurance carriers can work together.

I believe health care is a human right, and the high level of profit motives in health care are the problem, not the solution. For this reason, we need the government to oversee our health care system. Those with more financial resources will always be able to obtain the very best care.

Medicare has provided seniors with much improved access to health care. I will continue working toward improved access in the under-65 market.

Creating a universal (available to all) health care system is not threatening, it is most likely the answer. We are fortunate to have in place now a good health care delivery system, operating extremely efficiently for our seniors. Medicare, if expanded to all, would save money and lives.

The length limit was waived to permit a fuller response to the issue.

This story was originally published January 26, 2017 at 10:26 AM with the headline "Sherry Eason: Medicare for all a suitable ACA replacement plan."