AMA Sticks With Opposition to 'Medicare for All'

Trump’s Health Plan Chief

The administration of President Donald Trump sent Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to Chicago to speak out against Medicare for All proposals.

“We all know that the approach we have taken for generations to fix what ails our health care system is to regulate its every sector, and that has failed,” Verma said, according to a written version of her remarks. “That’s why, as the head of the Medicare program, I’m deeply concerned about proposals for Medicare for All. Medicare for All would enlarge our existing program, threatening its promise of health and hope for America’s seniors, who have paid into it their entire lives.”

Medicare for All would also push 180 million in private health insurance plans into a one-size fits-all government program, Verma said. “You have all experienced the harmful impact of well-meaning government policies on the practice of medicine,” she said.

For physicians, Medicare for All could mean the end of physicians’ ability to decide which payers they want to do business with, and what payments terms they’re willing to accept, Verma said.

Resources

A summary of the AMA Medicare for All discussion is available here.

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