In Search for Healthcare Solutions, Why Ignore Single Payer?

FEATURING PAUL SONG – A group of former lawmakers, government workers and healthcare industry leaders have launched an ambitious and slick new initiative to tackle healthcare called “United States of Care.” The initiative is led by Andy Slavitt, Former Acting Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who wrote an op-ed touting the new effort as one that is, “looking for solutions that have the support to last — no matter which party is in charge of the government.”

But advocates of Single Payer or Medicare-for-All have slammed the initiative as attempting to undermine the existing movement for a government-run healthcare system that provides tax-payer funded healthcare for free to all people.

Slavitt’s group, the United States of Care emphasizes “affordable care,” but makes no mention of Single Payer. Instead the website makes vague-sounding statements like, “Health care is complicated and so are its problems, many of them long-standing. But the solutions are within our reach.”

Paul Song, a board-certified radiation oncologist. He is co-chair of the Campaign for a Healthy California, and is on the board of Physicians for a National Health Program, and People for the American Way. Paul is also the Healthcare Correspondent for Rising Up With Sonali.