Roughly a third of House Democrats are forming a new caucus that will push for healthcare legislation to roll all U.S residents into the Medicare program.
The “Medicare for All” Caucus of 60 founding members will be announced Thursday morning and co-chaired by Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, and Debbie Dingell of Michigan.
Ellison, who is also deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is the lead House Democrat behind the Expanded and Improved Medicare For All Act, which has the support of more than 120 of 193 Democrats in the House.
Medicare currently covers adults 65 and older and people with disabilities. The “Medicare for All” plan would move all people in the U.S. from private health insurance, Medicaid and being uninsured, to being covered by the Medicare program.
Under the proposal, the government would be the sole payer for healthcare services, from mental health to emergency care and prescription drugs. People who now receive private medical coverage under a job would lose that plan to receive Medicare instead, and their employers would pay higher taxes rather than pay for the cost of private plans.
On the Senate side, the Medicare for All Act was reintroduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and has the unprecedented support of 16 Democratic senators.
Neither bill has enough support to pass the Republican-controlled Congress, and Democrats are divided over whether to seek an incremental approach toward involving the government more in healthcare or whether to aim more immediately for a government-run system. The debate is expected to play out during the midterm elections in November and during the 2020 presidential election.
A poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 53 percent of respondents said they favor a single-payer system, but support falls off when arguments are made about the government having more involvement in healthcare and when questions are asked about financing through higher taxes.
A 2016 analysis of Sanders’ presidential campaign plan by the liberal Urban Institute estimated it would cost $32 trillion over a decade.
