In yet another "Democrats in Disarray" story, the Washington Post notes that there friction between Nancy Pelosi and Bernie Sanders, because Pelosi wants to make Biden's subsidies to Obamacare permanent, and Sanders wants to expand Medicare.
This is really pretty simple, making the Obamacare subsidies permanent is a subsidy for the insurance companies, and not of people in need, while expanding Medicare helps everyone.
Pelosi wants to keep feeding money to the insurance companies because she wants to keep raising campaign donations from the insurance companies:
The White House is facing diverging pressure from two powerful allies — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — over whether to use an upcoming spending package to strengthen the Affordable Care Act or expand Medicare eligibility.
Pelosi’s office is pushing the White House to make permanent a temporary expansion of Affordable Care Act subsidies that were included in the $1.9 trillion stimulus legislation last month, according to a senior Democratic aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations.
Sanders said in an interview that he is arguing for lowering the age of Medicare eligibility to 55 or 60 and expanding the program for seniors so it covers dental, vision and hearing care.
The contrasting visions for the next phase of President Biden’s legislative agenda reflect divisions within the Democratic Party about how Biden should further overhaul health insurance in the United States. Pelosi is looking to double down on the ACA, which has become more popular in recent years as it offers insurance subsidies to people well above the poverty line. Sanders, meanwhile, is looking for an opportunity to make progress on his longtime efforts to make government health insurance universal.
Lowering the Medicare age is better policy, because it puts more pressure on expanding the program in the future, while Obamacare, while better than what went before us, still sucks wet farts from dead pigeons.
Also, I would note that expanding Medicare is better policy, because older people vote in higher percentages than younger ones.
My prediction: Biden goes with expanding subsidies to insurance companies, because, he's always been a creature of the finance and insurance industries.
2 comments :
You do forget one thing -- Medicare sucks.
I cannot speak to that personally, but My family was briefly on Medicaid, and it was the best insurance I ever had.
Also, Sanders wants to add vision, dental, and hearing.
Finally, giving Medicare the right to negotiate cost would eliminate a lot of the suckage.
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