Medicare for All is rapidly surging in popularity among the American public and gaining momentum in Congress, but private insurance interests and Big Pharma have no intention of giving up their immensely profitable stranglehold on the US healthcare system without a fight.
According to strategy documents obtained by The Intercept and the watchdog group Documented, the private healthcare industry is working aggressively alongside corporate Democrats to spread anti-single payer propaganda and “minimize the potential” for Medicare for All as an alternative to the current for-profit status quo.
In the wealthiest country history’s seen, we can probably do better than giving everyone “a chance at” health. Universal healthcare doesn’t necessarily mean single-payer. Don’t get snowed! #MedicareForAll pic.twitter.com/CeG2zfBmez
— Chris Middleman (@_Middleman) November 20, 2018
Directed by former Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton staffers and leading insurance industry lobbyists, an alliance called the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future worked hard during the build-up to the 2018 midterm elections to convince candidates to ” focus on shoring up the Affordable Care Act (ACA) instead of supporting single-payer healthcare,” The Intercept reported on Tuesday.
But now, after a number of unabashed Medicare for All advocates were elected to Congress and with a growing coalition of Democrats pushing for a vote on the House single-payer plan, Partnership is setting its sights on undermining Medicare for All’s prospects heading into 2020.
“We’re all focused on 2020,” Lauren Crawford Shaver, a former staffer on Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, said during a recent interview.
The principle objective of Partnership’s project, The Intercept reports, is to “to peel support away” from Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) Medicare for All legislation, which was introduced with…