Estes supports free-market U.S. healthcare system

The Medicare for All proposal touted by Democrats is a bad idea, said U.S. Rep. Ron Estes (R-KS) during the June 12 U.S. House Ways and Means Committee hearing.

“Democrat’s Medicare for All plan will double taxes, jeopardize rural hospitals, eliminate the Hyde Amendment, and eliminate all private and employer health insurance for 158 million Americans,” Rep. Estes said during the hearing entitled, “Pathways to Universal Health Coverage.”

The lawmaker instead called for “a free market system that has more affordable options and allows individuals to choose the plan that works best for them and their families.”

For almost a decade, Rep. Estes said, the nation’s healthcare sector “has been thrown into chaos, costs have risen, and choice has been decimated.”

And rather than suggesting new approaches to increase competition and lower costs, he said Democrats are advocating for “one-size-fits-all, government-run health care.”

“Under Medicare for All, 1.5 million citizens in Kansas would lose their private and employer insurance, including 507,000 individuals in the Fourth District,” he said, citing his home-state constituents.

The proposal also would negatively impact rural healthcare, said Rep. Estes.

“Kansas has 83 rural critical access hospitals, the second-largest number in the country, which get reimbursed at 101 percent of the cost,” the congressman said. “Under Medicare for All, their reimbursement would be slashed by 40 percent below current payment rates.”

At the same time, the Medicare for All proposal would increase patient wait times, said Rep. Estes, who cited current situations in countries that already have implemented similar government-run healthcare.

For example, the median wait time in Canada is almost 20 weeks for patients with referrals who want to see a specialist. Canadians also have median wait times of more than four weeks for a CT scan; 10.6 weeks for an MRI; and almost four weeks for an ultrasound.

Likewise in Britain, Rep. Estes said that one-in-five cancer patients must wait over two months for treatment after getting a referral.

“Instead of looking at government-run healthcare, let’s look at some of the things that would work,” he said, such as supporting critical care access hospitals.