The damage of the COVID-19 pandemic to the American medical and economic health is a glaring example of the fragmented, chaotic nature of our free enterprise medical system. Our system is designed for the benefit of a few at the cost of the many. I have worked as a family doctor for 30 years, 16 of them in Colorado.
This experience has led me to the conclusion that Medicare for all is our best hope for the future.
Medicare for all would build an infrastructure that would protect all our citizens. Rather than the commercially-driven computer fire-walls which prohibit smooth transfer of medical information, a Medicare for all system would include everybody. This would allow us to track patients and make timely interventions. For example Taiwan, only 81 miles from mainland China has been able to contain the pandemic through tracing contacts and testing. They developed this plan after the 2003 SARS epidemic, and instead of having the second-highest COVID-19 cases have had only two hundred.
Current problems with testing for such a virus as COVID-19 could be addressed by a widespread network or regional laboratories such as in Germany, which has also controlled the early spread of the virus.
Although this crisis highlights our need for Medicare for all, there are other important reasons for single-payer. Problems with access, comprehensiveness, racial disparities, long-term care of the elderly, and poor rural health care could all improve significantly with Medicare for all.
Joan A MacEachen, MD
Durango, CO
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