Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expressed her frustration over having dozens of insurance plans to choose from while many Americans are left with only one option thanks to government involvement in the healthcare market.
"Members of Congress also have to buy their plans off the exchange. They are Gold plans that are partially subsidized. That means I get to 'choose' [between] 66 complex financial products. This is absurd. No person should go without healthcare, [and] no one should go through this, either," Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter Sunday.
“While I am VERY thankful to finally have health insurance, it is a moral outrage that it took me *getting elected to Congress* for that to happen.
“The US needs to become an advanced society. That includes establishing healthcare as a right to all people,” she said.
The progressive Democrat then used her experiences with health insurance to justify needing even more government intervention.
“And as someone who has now experienced many parts of the insurance spectrum (being uninsured, underinsured, and adequately insured) I don’t see how anyone can think our current healthcare system only needs a 10% improvement or a just few tweaks,” she said. “We need #MedicareForAll.”
Members of Congress also have to buy their plans off the exchange. They are Gold plans that are partially subsidized.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 16, 2019
That means I get to “choose” btwn 66 complex financial products.
This is absurd. No person should go without healthcare, &no one should go through this, either. pic.twitter.com/bIeD71CD5g
And as someone who has now experienced many parts of the insurance spectrum (being uninsured, underinsured, and adequately insured) I don’t see how anyone can think our current healthcare system only needs a 10% improvement or a just few tweaks.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 16, 2019
We need #MedicareForAll.
The Washington Examiner pointed out how Ocasio-Cortez clearly lacks a basic understanding of how insurance costs are able to be kept low.
Customized plans allow insurers to cover the costs of more illness-prone patients in their risk pools without unnecessarily upcharging healthier people, which could deter healthy individuals from paying into the pool at all. Medicare For All wouldn't accomplish that.
The one-size-fits-all plan backed by the Bernie Bros might be a fine option if you're not capable of understanding or choosing insurance. But it would make six-figure earners such as Ocasio-Cortez pay more in premiums (levied as taxes), even though many of them would need less medical attention than older people potentially not paying into the system at all. This is also the real reason a hybrid plan like Pete Buttigieg's "Medicare for All Who Want It" cannot work. All private health insurance must be abolished if Medicare is to cover everything for everyone because the system can only work by massively overcharging younger and healthier people. [...]
Choice enables us to minimize prices while maximizing care, and only a statist would excoriate freedom as a system of oppression. (Washington Examiner)
After Republican criticism on Monday, AOC doubled down and said "healthcare is not H&M."
"A lot of Republicans are quite upset about critiquing the frame of 'choice' within our health insurance system, with many staying that those who struggle to pick the best insurance option are simply 'too dumb' to know better. But the complexity of our system is by design," she wrote on Twitter.
"They're also upset that I stated 66 'choices' is too many," she continued. "It is! Healthcare is not H&M. Insurance is a complex financial product for the doctor. Costs are skyrocketing largely due to the financialization of our health. Streamlining our system [and] covering more isn’t a bad thing."