[Peace-discuss] Biden-Linked Firm Tests Messages to Undercut 'Medicare for All'

[J.B. Nicholson]

David Johnson quoted 
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-23/biden-linked-firm-tests-messages-to-undercut-medicare-for-all 
published on September 23, 2019:
> A new poll by a firm linked to Joe Biden is testing messages designed to
> undercut support among Democrats for Medicare for All, one of the most
> contentious issues splitting the party's top presidential contenders.
> 
> [...]
> 
> Biden's main rivals, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, support Medicare
> for All, which would eliminate private insurance and create a system modeled
> on Medicare that automatically covers all Americans.

Oh, how things have changed. Medicare for All is not "splitting the party's top 
presidential contenders" anymore. Sanders very clearly dropped his support for 
Medicare for All, saying:

Around 41m44s into https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0uQV83U5Dk
> This is not Medicare for All, we can’t pass that right now.

and

https://archive.md/mdAKW
> Let me be clear: I am not proposing that we pass Medicare for All in this moment.
> That fight continues into the future.
as he ended his 2020 campaign.

Therefore before Sanders dropped out the top Democratic contenders agreed -- they all 
rejected Medicare for All. Now he tells us he won't work for Medicare for All either.

Responding to the latter of Sanders' quotes above: We have no idea when "the future" 
comes for Sanders, and therefore his statements read like so many other Democrats who 
say universal single-payer health care is something to reach for (but apparently 
never achieve).

> Sanders took aim at the survey and some of the arguments it is designed to
> test. "It is unfortunate but not surprising that Vice President Biden's
> polling firm is helping distort what Medicare for All is about," he said in
> a statement. Any tax increases would be used to eliminate costs for people
> seeking health care, Sanders said.

So Sanders understands what Medicare for All is about, and Sanders understands that 
Biden's firm is paid to work against Medicare for All. But Sanders did not say that 
he supported Medicare for All.

Meanwhile, according to 
https://www.hhs.gov/about/leadership/secretary/speeches/2020-speeches/remarks-white-house-coronavirus-press-briefing-4-03-20.html

> We are already rolling out $1 billion in funding from the Families First
> Coronavirus Response Act to cover providers’ expenses for testing and diagnosing
> the uninsured.
> 
> The CARES Act signed by the President includes another $100 billion for healthcare
> providers.
> 
> Under the President’s direction, we will use a portion of that funding to cover
> providers’ costs of delivering COVID-19 care for the uninsured, sending the money
> to providers through the same mechanism used for testing.
> 
> As a condition of receiving funds under this program, providers will be forbidden
> from balance billing the uninsured for the cost of their care. Providers will be
> reimbursed at Medicare rates.
> 
> We will soon have more specifics on how the rest of the $100 billion will go to
> providers.

We should expect to have available a small part of the very thing Sanders won't 
pursue writ large now, and what Biden outright rejects.