‘Medicare for all’ will crush NJ seniors, working-class families (Opinion)

Did you know that nearly a half million New Jersey seniors are benefiting from something called "Medicare Advantage"? Explained by the spokesperson for the Coalition for Medicare Choices, Cathryn Donaldson as a private/public partnership, which helps seniors and members of the disabled community get the health coverage and care they need to live their lives.

She joined me on the show this week to discuss the urgent need for Congress to protect this valuable part of our current health care system.

The system provides next level coverage for millions across the nations. Here's an excerpt from the Medicare Choices website:

Unlike traditional Medicare, the Medicare Advantage program offers Americans more comprehensive coverage. Many plans include additional benefits without an extra cost. These benefits include:

• Dental care
• Hearing care
• Vision care
• Drug coverage

Additionally, the program delivers more affordability too. Medicare Advantage plans cap out-of-pocket costs. This allows vulnerable Americans with incomes less than $30,000 per year to have access to stable health care. - Coalition for Medicare Choices

Unfortunately, the six Democrats that took the stage in Nevada Wednesday night all have some version of a "Medicare for all" or "Single Payer" Government run health care system. They all use examples of how our system is broken and how only government can step in to fix it.

Biden thinks that the right path is to reinvigorate "Obamacare" which put a huge tax burden on working Americans and spiked premium costs and caused millions of Americans to lose their existing plans, even though Obama promised the opposite.

Now the six hustlers vying for the Democratic nomination want to double down and expand government's role in your health care. They use examples of the UK and Canada as the goal for Americans. Here's what they are missing. Health coverage and health care are different things. Sure it's true in the UK, Canada and most of Europe residents are afforded access to medicine and doctors. But as anyone who has worked, lived or spent any amount of time in those places knows, the quality of care is not at the level of US care, people wait for days and sometimes months to receive care and the cost of running the system have gone up dramatically.

The solution? People with the means either pay for private health care or they come to the US. We cannot and should not be going down the path laid out by the candidates who only seek to score political points with a Democratic base wishing for a return to the Obama era. This is a shrinking minority of Americans as many traditional Democratic voters are questioning their alliance with the increasingly radicalized party.

As "Medicare Choices" representatives explain, we already have a great public/private partnership delivering low cost access to excellent health care services. Why not expand what is referred to as "Part C" to more people who are economically disadvantaged, scrap the last remnants of Obamacare altogether and then discuss how we lower overall costs.

Allowing health insurance to be portable to the person instead of through an employer, and accessible across state lines, eliminate certain minimum requirements as health care cannot be 'one size fits all' and open up the discussion of an insurance requirement that will off set the cost of emergency room visits by people without coverage.

Believe it or not, due to costs, many choose not to pay for coverage. So why should everyone else be forced to pay for that decision? Medicare advantage works and should be protected and expanded. Let's stop the crazy march toward a socialist solution that has clearly failed across the globe and embrace what we're really good at, competition through capitalism. It works. It works for food and fuel. Now it's time to aggressively apply the principles to health care.

On day one, a new Governor in New Jersey could start this process of increasing competition, working with the federal government, removing mandates and ending the outdated and harmful Obamacare provisions, we'll hopefully see this begin in January 2022.

Bill Spadea is on the air weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m., talkin’ Jersey, taking your calls at 1-800-283-1015. Tweet him @NJ1015 or @BillSpadea. The opinions expressed here are solely those of Bill Spadea.

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