If private insurance companies are lobbying to prevent Medicare for All because they’d lose their business, then make them the claims processors. Like, the government pays the bill, but the carrier process the claim as a contractor to the government. That way they can still be publicly trades and still keep their profit margin, and people still get guaranteed healthcare. They’d even be able to keep what they’ve killed in previous profit, and they’d not have to be the source of funds for actual claims.
Since there are a few companies, maybe we could even use a regional distribution of the populace for who has which card on their wallet. So maybe the east coast has Blue Cross Blue Shield, the west coast has Aetna, and the central states have Kaiser?
This way everyone wins: heal insurance keeps in business and still makes money; the people have healthcare; and the government improves the lives of its population, has fewer bankruptcies, and can tax the revenue of its contactors like they do with their current contractors.
Obligatory “not American” warning, but I think the problem is more complex than just making the government a customer. Countries with public healthcare generally don’t refer to private providers because the cost is orders of magnitude higher than a state run operation. (With few exceptions; my country paid for me to go to a private hospital once because I needed a specialist for something uncommon, and there weren’t enough in public hospitals / I was overspill.)
You don’t just have hospitals, you have an entire economy of insurance, administration, and severely inflated pricing to account for all the useless jobs and bloat. If none of that goes away, then I don’t see why the government would be incentivised to use them, rather than just set up state hospitals.
Also, unrelated but I just re-read the title; does Dr Oz still have any credibility whatsoever?
To answer in order:
Well, even if the government is now paying an inflated price, how would that be any different than what it currently does? Besides, what other expenditure would be a better use of the money? Bailing out Argentina? Giving the money to people who give the president a gift? Buying another aircraft carrier and base over seas? Funding Israel at the expense of your populace?
I mean yeah, it’s a massively bloated system. But, at least the populace would finally have health insurance. Someone getting hit by a car wouldn’t result in them facing bankruptcy after they wake up in the hospital but have no health insurance.