"Today is a good day for millions of Americans who have
pre-existing conditions who can no longer be rejected by insurance
companies. It is a good day for families with children under 26 who can
keep their children on their health insurance policies. It is a good day
for women who can no longer be charged far higher premiums than men.
"It is a good day for 30 million uninsured Americans who will have
access to healthcare. It is a good day for seniors who will continue to
see their prescription drug costs go down as the so-called doughnut hole
goes away. It is a good day for small businesses who simply cannot
continue to afford the escalating costs of providing insurance for their
employees. It is a good day for 20 million Americans who will soon be
able to find access to community health centers."
But that does not mean that Sanders is satisfied.
"In my view, while the Affordable Care Act is an important step in
the right direction and I am glad that the Supreme Court upheld it, we
ultimately need to do better," the independent senator says...
"If we are
serious about providing high-quality, affordable healthcare as a right,
not a privilege, the real solution to America's health-care crisis is a
Medicare-for-all, single-payer system. Until then, we will remain the
only major nation that does not provide health care for every man, woman
and child as a right of citizenship."
Sanders's Vermont is taking the lead in seeking to implement a state-level single-payer system -- much
as Canadian provinces took the lead in the 1940s and 1950s in developing
who would eventually be that country's national health-care system. The
court's ruling won't slow that push down, and it could actually speed it
up, as attention focuses on fights over state-run Medicaid programs.
Sanders says, "I hope our state will be a model to show the rest of the
nation how to provide better care at less cost to more people."
Agreed. Amid the celebration of the Supreme Court ruling by those who
did not want to go backward, there is a need for a firm focus on going
forward. "Stepping up the fight for Medicare for All is even more
critical in the midst of the still persistent economic crisis," notes
National Nurses United co-president Deborah Burger, RN, who noted that
nurses have seen deep declines in health status among patients who have suffered
the loss of jobs, homes and insurance coverage.
NNU notes that
"the Affordable Care Act still leaves some 27 million people without
health coverage, does little to constrain rising out of pocket health
care costs, or to stop the all too routine denials of needed medical
care by insurance companies because they don't want to pay for it."
It is for that reason that NNU co-president Jean Ross, RN, echoes
Sanders:
"The continuing fiscal crisis at all levels of government and
the anemic economic recovery remind us that rising healthcare costs and
shifting costs to workers burden our society, cause much of these fiscal
problems, and limit the opportunities for working people. Only real
cost control through a national health program can solve this crisis.
Improved Medicare meets that challenge."
"Medicare is far more effective than the broken private system in
controlling costs and the waste that goes to insurance paperwork and
profits, and it is universally popular, even among those who bitterly
opposed the Obama law," adds NNU co-president Karen Higgins, RN. "Let's
open it up to everyone, no one should have to wait to be 65 to be
guaranteed healthcare."
That's correct.