Blankley Fellow Hadley Heath Manning on Why COVID-19 Doesn’t Require Medicare For All
April 3, 2020
Hadley Heath Manning, a Steamboat Institute Tony Blankley Fellow and the Director of Policy at the Independent Women’s Forum, has an op-ed in The Federalist explaining why the country wouldn’t be better off fighting coronavirus if we had Medicare for All.
No, We Wouldn’t Be Better Off Fighting Coronavirus If We Had Medicare For All This pandemic has the potential to strain our health-care system like nothing else in modern times. But we will get through it best without a top-down Medicare for All system.
In the midst of a global pandemic, it’s worth considering how different health care systems are responding to COVID-19. Italy, a country of 60 million people with universal, government-run health care, has been brought to its knees by the overwhelming spread of cases. Government-run health care may provide universal coverage, but that’s an empty promise for those hospitals turn away. Anyone older than 80 isn’t even being considered for treatment at this time.
Here in the United States, a major contender for president, Sen. Bernie Sanders, staked his platform on democratic socialism and the claim that health care is a right government should secure. Understandably, this claim resonates with many, especially those who think the alternative is for health care to be treated like any other commodity. It shouldn’t. Health care is special — often a real life-or-death situation.
But that doesn’t mean health care is free from the market forces of supply and demand. Saying something is a right and saying it should be free for everyone doesn’t make it so.
Read the full piece HERE.
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