'Every. Single. One.': Ocasio-Cortez Notes Every Democrat Who Backed Medicare for All Won Reelection

[gulliver]

63. Medicare kind of sucks. The path we're on now is much, much better.

Current Medicare is ridiculously user-unfriendly. You have "donut holes," crazy rules about hospitalization, no MOOP (maximum out of pocket), doctor participation headaches, drug coverage gaps, etc. If you're on Medicare and don't have at least supplemental coverage or an advantage plan, you basically don't have healthcare.

Universal health care needs to be simple: You go to the doctor; you get care. You get a prescription; the pharmacy fills it. By framing what we want as "Medicare for All," we condemn ourselves to fighting forever to get a Rube Goldberg health care prize we shouldn't even want. We also give it a name that sounds "social justice-y" and is asking for defeat and delay.

If (and it's a big if) we can get a public option in place and shore up the ACA, then we'll have the seed crystal for true national health care to grow organically, quietly, painlessly, and quickly. Call it Medicare later. It will be for all, because that's what it will be, not because we stuck the words "for all" on the end.