The Case For Medicare For All

American health care is at a crossroads. Health spending reached $3.5 trillion in 2017. Yet more than 27 million people remain uninsured. And it's unclear if all that spending is buying higher-quality care.

Medicare fraud is big business, but while only a few profit from intentional malfeasance, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is now taking a closer look at everyone. The Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor Program, already infamously known as the RAC, swings into full operation in 2010 and every healthcare provider that receives payment under any of the Medicare fee-for-service payment systems will be subject to RAC scrutiny. And scrutinize, they will… .

Long thought of as an idealistic but unrealistic proposition promoted by far-left activists, single-payer health care has become a major discussion point across the political landscape. Bernie Sanders made it a central focus of his insurgent 2016 run for the Democratic presidential nomination against Hillary Clinton. House Democrats' messaging on health care in the 2018 midterm elections, and the burgeoning campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, have elevated single-payer even further, bringing the issue to the center of American politics.

In this book, Phelps and Parente explore the US health care system and set out the case for its reform.

by Charles E. Phelps (Author), Stephen T. Parente (Author)