{"id":86697,"date":"2020-02-21T15:04:04","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T21:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=86697"},"modified":"2020-02-27T11:38:43","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T17:38:43","slug":"medicare-for-all-attracts-support-for-bernie-sanders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/medicare-for-all-attracts-support-for-bernie-sanders\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicare for All attracts support for Bernie Sanders"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Anne Snabes<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014 Corina Pittman, a college student with severe allergies, once bought two EpiPens that were each $200. She called this price \u201ccrazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is passionate about Sen. Bernie Sanders\u2019 \u201cMedicare for All\u201d proposal, which would end private health insurance and institute a single-payer health insurance system. That means the government would pay for everyone\u2019s health care.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s obviously ridiculous how much money we spend on health care,\u201d said Pittman, who grew up in Pennsylvania and attends college in North Carolina. \u201cMy parents spend so much money on health care for our family.\u201d
\n
\nPittman, who has supported Sanders since 2015, was raised in an area with a \u201cstrong history\u201d of union involvement. She said Sanders\u2019 message of economic rights for the working class is \u201cextremely powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Medicare for All has driven some Americans to support Sanders. The senator shared his platform to an enthusiastic crowd in Charlotte, North Carolina, earlier this month, less than three weeks before the state holds its Democratic primary, on March 3, or Super Tuesday. Sanders fans at the rally support Medicare for All because they see current health care as too expensive.<\/p>\n

Sanders is competing against former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg and other moderates, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D.-Minn.) and former Vice President Joe Biden, who have criticized Medicare for All. They prefer a public option, which would allow anyone to sign up for government-run insurance, like Medicare, but would not end private health insurance.<\/p>\n

In Nevada, which holds its caucuses on Saturday, the Culinary Workers Union distributed a flyer that criticized Sanders\u2019 health care plans<\/a>, according to the Nevada Independent. The union worked for years to achieve its current health insurance plan, and union leaders are not sure that Medicare for All would be an improvement, according to the New York Times. The union is not going to endorse a candidate.<\/p>\n

At the Democratic debate on Tuesday in Las Vegas, Medicare for All supporter Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D.-Mass.) said she wants to expand the union\u2019s health facilities, instead of closing them. Moderates at the debate attacked Medicare for All, including Klobuchar, who noted that two-thirds of Democratic senators have been unwilling to co-sponsor a Medicare for All bill.<\/p>\n

Many of Bernie Sanders\u2019 fans support his health care proposal, though. At the Charlotte rally, the crowd cheered when Sanders said he would pass Medicare for All as president. After he said it a second time, the crowd chanted, \u201cBernie! Bernie! Bernie!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanders also said in his speech that he would expand Medicare so that dental care, eyeglasses, hearing aids and home health care would be covered. \u201cMedicare right now is the most popular health insurance program in the country,\u201d he said, \u201cbut it\u2019s not perfect, and I want to make it much better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sanders\u2019 rally in Charlotte drew a large crowd, with some sitting in the theater\u2019s balconies. (Anne Snabes\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

John Kinard, a volunteer for Sanders\u2019 campaign in South Carolina, said he has talked to a lot of people who passionately support Sanders because of health care and criminal justice issues.
\nKinard has also chatted with voters about Medicare for All. He explained to them that they would receive health care as a service and would not see any medical bills. He said this conversation surprises some people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a basic part of life in the rest of the world, and it\u2019s so unimaginable to Americans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In Sweden, county councils and other forms of local government provide health care<\/a> to citizens, according to the government of Sweden\u2019s website. Taxes are the main source of funding for health care in the country, according to a review<\/a> by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. Sanders\u2019 Senate office has suggested several options<\/a> for funding Medicare for All, including making employees and employers pay an income-based premium and taxing \u201cextreme wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachel DeCouto, a 22-year-old Charlotte resident who attended Sanders\u2019 rally, plans to vote for the Vermont senator in the primary. She supports Sanders because she says he represents the American people. She called health care a \u201chuge issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can see it in my own family,\u201d she said. \u201cLike, if someone in my family were to get sick, we would be bankrupt, like immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeCouto said that over the past year, she visited a doctor for a minor infection, which she had already self-diagnosed. She said the doctor recommended that she schedule a second appointment to rule out other potential conditions. After the second appointment, her parents received a bill in the mail for $1,200, even though DeCouto had been told that she wouldn\u2019t have to pay for the appointment. Her parents are trying to see if the cost can be waived.<\/p>\n

Two doctors stood outside the venue before the Sanders rally started, talking about Medicare for All to people about to enter the building. Denise Finck-Rothman, who donned a white coat and a stethoscope, said she is part of Health Care Justice North Carolina, which is a chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program, an organization that helped Sanders write his health care bill. The senator introduced a Medicare for All bill in the Senate in 2017<\/a> and then another one in 2019<\/a>, and both bills were referred to the chamber\u2019s Committee on Finance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see every week the people that do not have adequate health care and who just struggle because they can\u2019t get the health care they need,\u201d said Finck-Rothman, a retired family medicine doctor who volunteers at two clinics. She does not approve of a public option. She said insurance companies\u2019 plans would cover the healthy people, while the public option would cover the people \u201cin need of health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe the taxpayers will be paying for all of the sick people, and all the insurance companies will be getting all the money, that they will pay to their CEOs and their staff and all of that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Denise Finck-Rothman, right, spoke to people about Medicare for All outside of the rally venue. (Anne Snabes\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She plans to vote for Sanders in the primary.<\/p>\n

Finck-Rothman said, \u201cIt was his bill, as he says: \u2018It was my damn bill. I wrote it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke to an animated crowd at a rally on Feb. 14 in Charlotte. (Anne Snabes\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Anne Snabes Medill Reports CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014 Corina Pittman, a college student with severe allergies, once bought two EpiPens that were each $200. She called this price \u201ccrazy.\u201d She is passionate about Sen. Bernie Sanders\u2019 \u201cMedicare for All\u201d proposal, which would end private health insurance and institute a single-payer health insurance system. That means […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":621,"featured_media":86701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4946,4928,4892],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election-2020","category-south-carolina-2020","category-winter-2020"],"yoast_head":"\nMedicare for All attracts support for Bernie Sanders - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/medicare-for-all-attracts-support-for-bernie-sanders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Medicare for All attracts support for Bernie Sanders - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Anne Snabes Medill Reports CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014 Corina Pittman, a college student with severe allergies, once bought two EpiPens that were each $200. She called this price \u201ccrazy.\u201d She is passionate about Sen. Bernie Sanders\u2019 \u201cMedicare for All\u201d proposal, which would end private health insurance and institute a single-payer health insurance system. 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