Healthcare Exec: Medicare for All Would Have a ‘Severe’ Impact on Economy, Jobs

UnitedHealth Group CEO Dave Wichmann chastised Democrats’ Medicare for All plan Tuesday, contending it would have a “severe” impact on the economy and jobs and would not increase access to health care.

Health insurers have kept quiet for the last couple months about the Democrats’ radical plan to transform America’s healthcare system into a government-run, single-payer government program; however, Wichmann said during a conference call with investors Tuesday that Medicare for All would devastate the American economy without fulfilling its primary goal of increasing access to health care for all Americans.

Wichmann said the Democrats’ many Medicare for All proposals would amount to a “wholesale disruption of American health care.

UnitedHealth serves as the largest health insurer and rivals Medicare’s enrollment with nearly 49.7 million people on its rolls and recorded a revenue of $226.2 billion. Medicare has roughly 60 million Americans on its rolls.

Health insurance stocks have fluctuated in the first couple of months since Democrats started offering their Medicare for All proposals that would dramatically alter Americans’ health care.

Wichmann said during the press conference call that the choice is clear between a government-sponsored program or government-run program and a free-market.

“The options are clear between a government-sponsored or government-run system and the one we have to offer,” Wichmann said, adding that Medicare for All’s cost would “surely have a severe impact on the economy and jobs — all without fundamentally increasing access to care.”

Wichmann’s comments arise as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who has for many years led the way for government-run health care, held a town hall in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on Monday night with Fox News.

As the health insurance companies sound the alarm over Medicare for All, President Donald Trump has promised that Republicans will become the party of health care and will propose a better alternative to Obamacare and Medicare for All.

Republican senators such as Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) have heeded President Trump’s call and suggested the GOP needs to “force the conversation” of healthcare onto the industry’s back, contending that if the industry does not change, Medicare for All will win.

“I actually put more of the burden and blame for the issues we’ve had with health care at the industry. They’re the ones that ought to be smart enough to know they got to get with it or they will have one partner only, and that’s the federal government,” Braun told Breitbart News in March.

“The industry can fix it if they get with it. The federal government is just going to be the tool of the Democrats that try to move to Medicare for All,” Braun added.