The center-left Searchlight Institute is urging Democrats to abandon Medicare for All legislation and instead work toward universal healthcare in other ways that wouldn’t disrupt private insurance.
The Health Care Unity plan, shared first with Semafor, endorses a bigger role for government in healthcare — negotiating drug prices and breaking up medical monopolies — but cautions that sunny polling on Medicare for All obscures the fact that most people with private plans want to keep them.
“Every Democrat should be able to say that we want universal healthcare in this country,” said Searchlight Institute President Adam Jentleson. “But any time you talk about healthcare, you either fall in the Medicare for All lane, or for incremental reforms. That is not the path forward.”
On Wednesday morning, the Congressional Progressive Caucus will hold a hearing with National Nurses United, again making the case for the full Medicare for All bill, which would replace current healthcare with a single-payer system.