What if each person in this photo could have the basic healthcare he or she needs without insurance? What if he or she did not have to pay a deductible or a co-pay to get care? What if all he or she needed was a card – like a Medicare card?

Members of the Eastern Panhandle Single Payer Action Network (EPSPAN) believe this is possible.

They are advocating for a bill in the US House of Representatives titled HR 676 Improved Medicare for All. The bill provides coverage of all medically necessary services under Medicare. It is expanded to include dental, vision and hearing services, as well as mental health and long-term care to all Americans from birth to death.

The plan becomes financially possible by eliminating private insurance companies, replacing insurance premiums with a fair tax, and by repairing the major flaws in Medicare. As a single-payer system, we will realize the benefits of negotiating prices with pharmaceutical and medical supply companies. We will be able to cover everyone without spending more than we do now in our country. The payroll tax for 95 percent of families will be less than what they spend now on insurance premiums, deductibles, and co-pays.

While funding will be public, healthcare will be provided privately by doctors, hospitals and other practitioners as it is now under Medicare.

EPSPAN urges everyone in the Eastern Panhandle to tell 2nd District Rep. Alex Mooney that we want him to become a co-sponsor of HR 676 Improved Medicare for All and Senators Manchin and Capito to introduce a companion bill in the Senate. More and more leaders in our country are realizing that the only way forward is through single-payer healthcare.

To learn more go to the EPSPAN website epspan.org and follow on FB EPSPANWV.

Happy Birthday, Medicare – 52 years old on July 30!

Ann Coulter

EPSPAN,

Physicians for a National Health Program chapter

and Affiliate of Healthcare-Now!