Medicare For All Explained

This is episode 57, “What You Need To Know About Medicare, Medigap, Medicare (Dis)Advantage, and How Medicare for All Benefits Seniors, Part 1.“

My guest, Diane Archer, is founder and president of Just Care USA, an independent digital media hub that focuses on health and financial issues facing boomers and their parents. Ms. Archer serves on the Brown University School of Public Health Advisory Board, and is the past chair of the Board of Consumer Reports. She began her career in health advocacy in 1989 as founder and president of the Medicare Rights Center, a national consumer service organization dedicated to ensuring that older and disabled Americans get the health care they need. Ms. Archer received her J.D. degree from Harvard Law School. 

My interview with Ms. Archer covers two episodes, 57 and 58. This episode discusses problems with Medicare, Medigap or Supplemental plans, and how Medicare Advantage puts you at a disadvantage. Part 2, available on June 15th, discusses problems with direct contracting, changes to improve Medicare, and how seniors would benefit from Medicare for All. 

Do not miss this episode as Ms. Archer discusses critical information that every senior and their children need to know about Medicare. 

This is episode 56, “How Medicare For All Would Benefit People With Disabilities and the LGBTQIA Community.”

My guest, Rosie Bean, has been politically engaged from an early age. They are a part of the LGBTQIA community and a disabled individual. This has made the fight for justice personal for Rosie. They started out as a moderate liberal Democrat, but had a political awakening that caused them to become more progressive. Rosie started their own political group called FLIP, “Feminists, Liberals, Independents & Progressives,” and is an activist for Medicare for All. 

Do not miss this episode as Rosie discusses how getting on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) dramatically changed their life and how people with disabilities and the LGBTQIA Community would benefit from Medicare for All.

This is episode 55, "Racism Is a Public Health Threat."

My guest, Ronald Wyatt, MD, is a board-certified Internist and practiced medicine for over twenty years in St. Louis, Missouri, and Huntsville, Alabama. He was the first Black chief resident at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

Dr. Wyatt co-chairs the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Equity Advisory Group and is faculty for the IHI Pursuing Equity Initiative.

Do not miss this episode and Dr. Wyatt discusses why racism is threat to public health and what can be done to end it.

Note, this is the editorial that is referenced in this episode, "Opinion: The health-care industry doesn’t want to talk about this single word."

 

 

This is episode 54, “Getting a State Medical Society to Support Medicare for All.” 

My guest, Jane Katz Field, MD, is a retired pediatrician. She has been a Clinical Instructor in pediatrics at the University of Vermont School of Medicine and a clinical instructor or professor at other medical schools. In addition, Dr. Katz Field has worked for the New Jersey State Health Department.  

Do not miss this episode as Dr. Katz Field discusses her successful effort to get the Vermont Medical Society to pass a resolution supporting Medicare for All. 

Note, information about the resolution can be found here, and the submitted resolution can be found here. 

This is episode 53, "Health Disparities in the US Before And After the Pandemic."

My guest, Monica Maalouf, MD, is a primary care internist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Loyola Stritch School of Medicine. She went to medical school at the University of Minnesota and completed her residency training at New York University School of Medicine in New York City. Her medical interests include HIV care and women's health, with a particular focus on marginalized communities. Dr. Maalouf is Co-president of Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP) Illinois and an active member of the Illinois Single-Payer Coalition.

Do not miss this episode as Dr. Maalouf discusses disparities in the U.S. health care system. 

This is episode 52, “How We Can Meet the Mental Health Needs of Children and Adolescents.”

My guest, Claire Cohen, MD, is an African-American psychiatrist who specializes in children and adolescents, and has practiced in Pittsburgh since 1984. She did her General Psychiatry Residency at the University of Chicago. Dr. Cohen then moved to Pittsburgh to do her Child and Adolescent Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh’s Western Psychiatric Institute, fell in love with Western Pennsylvania, and has practiced there ever since. She has worked in a variety of settings, including community mental health clinics, partial hospitals, school-based settings, and she currently works in an inpatient hospital setting. 

Dr. Cohen has always been active in her community and in fighting for Medicare For All as a member of Physicians For A National Health Program and the Western PA Coalition for Single Payer Healthcare.

Do not miss this episode as Dr. Cohen explains why our current health care system is not meeting the needs of people who need mental health treatment and how Medicare for All could fix many of the problems. 

 

This is episode 51, “Public Option, Unions, Obligation, Part 2.“

My guest, James McGee, has spent his career in and around collectively bargained benefit plans, especially health care plans. He has primarily worked on union benefit plans, which are technically known as Taft-Hartley plans. 

Mr. McGee recently retired after 17 years working for the Transit Employees' Health & Welfare Fund as its Executive Director. The Fund provides the health care benefits for the active and retired members of ATU Local 689 employed by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). In this role, he become acutely aware of the deficiencies of our current health care system and began to take an active role in organizations advocating for reform, especially a single-payer solution.

Mr. McGee is on the Steering Committee of the Labor Campaign for Single-Payer, the Montgomery County Chapter of Healthcare-NOW, and on the Board of Directors of Universal Health Care Action Network (UHCAN).

In Part 1, we discussed problems with the public option. Part 2 discusses how unions would benefit from Medicare for All and why health care is an obligation. 

Do not miss this episode as Mr. McGee discusses how unions would benefit from Medicare for All and why health care is an obligation. 

This is episode 50, “Public Option, Unions, Obligation, Part 1.“

My guest, James McGee, has spent his career in and around collectively bargained benefit plans, especially health care plans. He has primarily worked on union benefit plans, which are technically known as Taft-Hartley plans. 

Mr. McGee recently retired after 17 years working for the Transit Employees' Health & Welfare Fund as its Executive Director. The Fund provides the health care benefits for the active and retired members of ATU Local 689 employed by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). In this role, he become acutely aware of the deficiencies of our current health care system and began to take an active role in organizations advocating for reform, especially a single-payer solution.

Mr. McGee is on the Steering Committee of the Labor Campaign for Single-Payer, the Montgomery County Chapter of Healthcare-NOW, and on the Board of Directors of Universal Health Care Action Network (UHCAN).

My interview with Mr. McGee covers two episodes 50 and 51. This episode discusses problems with the public option. Part 2, available on March 1st, discusses how unions would benefit from Medicare for All and why health care is an obligation. 

Do not miss this episode as Mr. McGee explains why the public option is bad for the public. 

This is episode 49, “A Local Resolution Supporting Medicare For All.”

My guest, Holly Hatcher, is a registered nurse in Madison, Wisconsin, and is a Dane County Board Supervisor. She is a mother, grandmother, activist, and Medicare for All Advocate. 

Ms. Hatcher was instrumental in passing a local resolution in Dane County that supported Medicare for All and was approved on January 7, 2021. 

Do not miss the episode as Ms. Hatcher describes why we need Medicare for All and why she wanted a local resolution supporting it. 

 

This is episode 48, “Covid and Racial Inequities.”

My guest, Susan Rogers, MD, FACP, is the president of Physicians for a National Health Program. She is recently retired, but continues helping people as a volunteer attending hospitalist and internist at the John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Illinois. She is an assistant professor of medicine at Rush University, and previously was the co-director of medical student programs for the Department of Medicine at Stroger Hospital.  She has received numerous teaching awards from Stroger Hospital and Rush University.

Dr. Rogers is a member and Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP), a member of the Society of General Internal Medicine and the National Medical Association.

Do not miss this episode as Dr. Rogers describes the racial inequities revealed by the pandemic in our current healthcare system and what can be done to address them.