Tim Ryan told Cenk Uygur from The Young Turks this weekend that Medicare for All isn’t a good plan because unions have fought for decent healthcare, often at the expense of wages. This is just the latest example of a stupid argument against Medicare for All, and there is no shortage of stupidity when it comes to fighting against giving everyone healthcare. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins debunks some of the dumbest arguments against Medicare For All.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
So this past weekend I watched a video clip on Twitter was Jank Ugyer speaking with a representative Tim Ryan, where Tim Ryan was talking about what a bad idea medicare for all truly is. And one of the reasons he gave about this being a bad idea was because unions in this country have fought really hard to get better private healthcare insurance from their employers. Oftentimes according to Tim Ryan, sacrificing wages in exchange for better healthcare. And if we were to switch to a medicare for all plan, well I mean that would just negate all the hard work of those unions. All those wages that they had sacrificed would be for not. and that’s probably the dumbest argument I have heard against Medicare for all to date. And Trust me, there are some dumb arguments out there against Medicare for all. But what Tim Ryan is saying here is essentially the argument against forgiving student loan debt while I paid off my debt. This isn’t fair. Now, unions aren’t out there right now whining like, but we fought hard for 30 years to get a fairly decent healthcare plan and now you want to take that away and give us something better. No thanks. Yeah, that’s not actually happening with the unions folks. They’re not reacting that way. But Tim Ryan wants us to think they are. Here’s the thing, and Tim Ryan’s own argument actually shows this. He said they sacrificed wage increases in order to get better insurance. Now imagine if those unions didn’t have to fight for health insurance along with everything else they fight for. If we took something off their plate for them, then suddenly when they go to their employers, they don’t have five things they have to fight for. They only have four. There’s not five things their employers have to pay for. There’s only four. So that frees up a little money. It frees up a little time for the unions as well. Only having to focus on those four things. So instead of fighting for health insurance, we got your back on that with Medicare for all you’re already covered. Don’t worry about it. Just like we’re seeing right now with GM stripping healthcare away from their striking workers. They’re using that as an intimidation tactic to get the workers to cave. Imagine if they didn’t have that bargaining chip anymore because all those workers would be covered under medicare for all. Then the only thing GM would cave on would be wages and other benefits, which are sorely needed by these workers, so that is why this is one of the dumbest arguments against Medicare for all, but don’t get me wrong. They’re all dumb. They’re all absolutely dumb. Let me think about it. One of the biggest arguments out there, Republicans running an ad on it right now are about wait times. All the wait times are horrible in other countries. Actually, they’re not. Study after study after study after study has shown that wait times in other countries are essentially the same as they are in the United States. Even when compared to countries that have socialized medicine. There’s really no statistical difference whatsoever and a little bit of anecdotal evidence that I can throw out for you right now. My Dad last November was told by his cardiologist that he was going to have to have another bypass surgery. My parents left the cardiologist’s office that day called the specialist or the surgeon, excuse me, uh, to go ahead and get the scheduled cause doctor said, yeah, you need this done. Here’s the number, call it. The earliest they could get in for the surgeon for this, a bypass surgery, April? And they called in November. So they had a good six month wait because they were just backed up. And my parents have private insurance so that wait time argument. Yeah, that’s pretty much garbage because it happens even with private insurance. People love their insurance, their law, their private health insurance. They love it. No, no they don’t. I mean I’ve seen a couple people on Twitter say like, no, I love mine, but those are typically right-wing trolls who have no idea, probably don’t even have to go to the doctor at all throughout the year, aren’t living on a prescription medication every single day. So sure, if you don’t ever have to use it, I’m sure private insurance is awesome. But as somebody who takes her prescription medication every single day of their life and has kids that have to do the same private insurance sucks. Not to mention the fact that polls show that people are overwhelmingly more likely to support Medicare for all when they find out they can keep their doctor just not their current insurance. They like that. And that’s the argument that people love their doctors, but they don’t like their insurance. And somewhere along the lines, uh, opponents of Medicare for all switch that to people love their insurance. Nobody loves their insurance. Stop making that stupid claim. And then of course we have the, it’ll raise taxes argument, the dumbest of the dumb because yes, technically it will raise your taxes. And Elizabeth Warren really waffled on this question recently because she wouldn’t admit like, oh yeah, it’ll raise your taxes. Yeah, it’ll raise your taxes, folks. It’s going to raise your taxes. But guess what? It’s going to reduce. So actually, excuse me, eliminate your private health insurance payment. And so it’s going to reduce more money than it raises your taxes by. So overall, you net more money. Great example here folks. If Medicare for all were to raise our taxes by 10% 10% that’s a lot. It’s a big tax increase. Do you know what I pay a year with my employer sponsored healthcare coverage. When you factor in my deductible, it’s 25% of my income, 25% of my income, 12 and a half percent of every paycheck I get goes to health insurance. And again factor in the deductible. Suddenly you’re at 25% of my pay. So if you raise my taxes 10% I’m saving that 15% so overall I bring home more money and I know that’s anecdotal cause that’s just about me. But I can promise you that’s the situation for everybody out there as well. Yes, it’ll raise our taxes but it’ll eliminate all other healthcare calls. So we end up saving more money. And the bottom line is this. Every argument, every argument out there about why Medicare for all won’t work is absolutely stupid and is being made by people who are either afraid of change or have something to gain from keeping private insurance in place the way it is now.
