Single-payer health care, which Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton had proposed working toward, is dead – at least for the next four years.
The mood was somber at a single-payer event in Louisville the morning after President-Elect Donald Trump won the election.
Trump has plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, including Medicaid expansion, individual market exchanges, Medicare payment reforms and more.
“In my mind, I was optimistic that we would move forward with the ACA and try to make it even better and support Americans without health care insurance,’ said Anna Faul, executive director of the Institute for Sustainable Health and Optimal Aging at the University of Louisville. “Right now, we all feel about a little like, wow, what are we going to talk about now.”
But she added they and groups such as Physicians for a National Health Program would keep moving forward on advocating for a single-payer system.
Since Medicaid has expanded to childless adults and people making between 100 and 138 percent of the poverty line in Kentucky, health outcomes have improved. More than 400,000 people gained Medicaid coverage under that program, and more than 100,000 people gained health insurance through the individual market.
Faul said she supported Clinton in part because she had proposed continuing the Affordable Care Act. One of the big issues in Kentucky, Faul said at the event Wednesday, is that people without insurance in adulthood enter the elderly health insurance program Medicare at 65 in poorer health, driving up costs for the program.
“If you don’t have good access to health care when you reach to the age of 50, you start developing chronic conditions, and they’re much sicker when they reach the age of 65,” she said. “They get the services then, but it’s very costly.”
Clinton had proposed expanding Medicare to people 55 and over, instead of just 65 and over, and implementing a national health insurance option that would compete with private insurance plans.
Trump plans on replacing Medicaid and Medicaid expansion with block grants that states could use on whatever programs for the poor and underserved. He’s also proposed a tax deduction for people who buy their own insurance.
