Medicare-for-all advocates get their first hearing on Capitol Hill

By Amy Goldstein April 30 at 10:08 AM

The House Rules Committee on Tuesday morning opened the first hearing in Congress on Medicare-for-all — the idea pushed by progressive Democrats running for president to convert the U.S. health-care system to a government-financed model that would cover everyone.

Though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has not committed to bringing such ameasure to a vote, the hearing offers congressional advocates a high-profile opportunity to make the case that a single-payer system could be a practical way to extend health coverage to all Americans.

The House’s Medicare-for-all legislation, introduced two months ago by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) with about 100 co-sponsors, lies at one end of the Democratic debate about whether the best way to improve health care for Americans is to tinker with the Affordable Care Act or to fundamentally redesign the way care is organized and paid for.

Even among Medicare-for-all proponents, there is disagreement about the role for private insurance companies. Some, such as Jayapal and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), contend that private insurance should be eliminated, while others suggest that public and private insurance could coexist.

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