ICYMI: Dr. Abdul El-Sayed Joins Ezra Klein To Talk About His Plans To Bring Down Healthcare Costs Through Medicare For All

MICHIGAN – Dr. Abdul El-Sayed joined the New York Times’ Ezra Klein for a discussion about our broken healthcare system, and how his plan, Medicare For All, would guarantee affordable healthcare from cradle to grave for every single American. 

“Right now, you have a system in which we think of ourselves as the customer. But if you think about it, Ezra, if you get sick tomorrow, you are the reason for a financial transaction between your health insurer and your provider. And every single part of that financial transaction, every player in that transaction, except for you, has a financial incentive to maximize the amount of money they get to pick.

“So your insurer makes money when you pay more into that insurance than gets paid out for your health care. The clinic or the hospital makes money because they provided health care and can bill for that health care. The device company or the pharmaceutical company makes money when you use that product, whether in the context of a clinical interaction or the context of your taking medication.

“And for that reason, there is no actual incentive for any one of these players to look out for your well-being.

“There is no perfect solution to any human problem. But if you were to design a system that was maximally painful for the patient, it would be this one. Because you’re being extracted from at every level.

“Our healthcare system is no longer the thing that is supposed to give us ease in our pain. It has become just another industry for the minting of money, and it mints a ton of money for folks. It’s also why it’s way too expensive. It’s deeply inequitable. The experience of it, whether you’re a patient or a provider, is not satisfying.

“So what would Medicare for all do? Rather than this situation in which you have an insurance company that is profit-motivated managing a lot of this transaction, you have one payer, who is the federal government.

“From the average person’s view, I just want to have health care when I need it. And just the fact that it would guarantee everyone coverage at the minimum is such an incredible value above and beyond the current system, that from a political standpoint, that alone is worth it. If I lose my job, I still have my health care. That’s huge. Without having to pay some insane amount of money for the health insurance I thought I had. That’s huge.”

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