WASHINGTON (CN) - After months out of the legislative spotlight, health care returned to Capitol Hill on Wednesday with Republicans and Democrats unveiling competing proposals that would fundamentally alter health care in the country.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., released his long-promised Medicare for All bill, a single-payer health care plan that was a feature of his campaign for the Democratic nomination last year. The bill drew the support of 16 Democratic co-sponsors, including Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey — each of whom is said to be launching White House bids in 2020.
Sanders said at a Wednesday afternoon press conference that his goal with the proposal is to shape health care as a right.
"The American people want to know what we're going to do to fix a dysfunctional health care system which costs us twice as much per person as any other country and yet leaves 28 million people uninsured and even more underinsured," Sanders said. "That's what the American people want to know in terms of what we're doing."
The Medicare for All Act would implement an overarching federal health care program over four years, enrolling people under 18 in the new program and lowering the eligibility age for Medicare to 55 in the first year.
The eligibility age would drop by 10 years in each of the next three years, with everyone being able to enroll in the program four years after the plan passes. The new plans would cover a wide variety of services, including hospital and emergency care, primary and preventative care services, prescription drugs, mental health services, and reproductive care, including abortions.
Sanders focused on the larger meaning of moving to a government-run program, with health care practitioners and patients joining him at the press conference Wednesday to voice their support for a single-payer system.
A woman named Rebecca Wood spoke about feeling torn sometimes between paying the "exorbitant" cost of her asthma medicine or treatment for her daughter, Charlie, who was born prematurely but can live a more normal life through therapy.
She always chooses Charlie, Wood said.
One time when she did so, however, it was at the expense of a crucial dental procedure. Wood said putting the procedure off sent her to the emergency room: she developed an infection that spread in her mouth and jaw, causing swelling that obstructed her airway.
"The next day I had all of my teeth pulled, the infection drained, and parts of my jaw scraped away in a six-hour procedure under local anesthesia," Wood said. "I could not afford to have it done under general anesthesia. I cried the entire ride home afterwards."
Calling the American health care system broken, Wood said a single-payer system would prevent American families from having to make such impossible choices.