Event summary: Understanding the Healthcare Debate
On Wednesday, November 18, we held a virtual event, Understanding the Healthcare Debate, with guest expert Dr. Matthew Fiedler, fellow with the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy.
Dr. Fiedler laid out how Americans get healthcare today:
He explained that the debate essentially is about two things:
- coverage: who has insurance, who pays for it, what it covers, and the government’s role, and
- spending: the overall amount Americans spend on healthcare.
And within those topics, there are two types of disagreements happening:
- on core values: what folks think is right or wrong (like the role of government); and
- what policies actually work (like, if expanding coverage actually improves people’s health).
He compared the major proposals in the mix today — Biden’s plan, a single payer system (like Bernie’s Medicare for All), and proposals to pare back coverage programs — and how they come from a different set of values and ideas about what policies actually work.
He surprised us with an explanation of where healthcare spending actually goes.
He also answered attendees’ questions about how much Americans spend on healthcare versus other countries, the impact of Covid-19, the future of telehealth, and much more.
Watch the whole session here: