We are the richest nation on earth but 45.5 million people do not have health care. That’s a moral scandal: families are making choices between paying for health care and putting food on the table.

And it’s hurting our economy. Businesses that do provide health care for their workers, find themselves at an enormous competitive disadvantage with companies in Canada, Japan, and Europe, where health care is guaranteed by the government to every person.

So, my commitment to you is this: the very first piece of non-Iraq war legislation that I will fight for as a United States Senator will bring affordable health care to every person in America: we will extend Medicare to everyone.

This can be done if we have the will to fight against the corporate interests in America--the drug companies, insurance industry and big health care providers-- who are denying people the basic right to health care. We pay more than twice as much per person as other wealthy countries, yet life expectancies are shorter in the United States than in any other wealthy country. Costs are rising far more rapidly in the United States than in any other country.

Why Medicare? It is by far the most efficient part of our national health care system. The administrative costs of the Medicare system are tiny: just 2 percent. Private insurers are ripping us off because we pay for their bureaucracies, executive pay and benefits, and advertising, which adds up to a mind-boggling 25 percent of costs.

We should let firms and individuals buy into the Medicare system, taking advantage of its lower costs. The Medicaid system could also be rolled into Medicare, allowing for further savings by eliminating unnecessary duplication.

The expanded Medicare system should use its buying power to push down the prices of pharmaceutical, medical equipment, and other costs in order to bring health care expenses in the United States more in line with costs in the rest of the world.

With these savings, we will be able to afford to cover the uninsured. Every other industrialized country is able to guarantee health insurance to its entire population. People in the United States deserve the same health care security that people in Canada, England, Germany and other countries have enjoyed for decades.

I also support Rep. Jan Schakowsky's bill, H.R. 752, the Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choices Act, that would require that Medicare offer a drug benefit and negotiate for drug discounts for enrollees in order to reduce costs and provide a permanent, guaranteed alternative to private insurance plans.

See a couple of articles that Jonathan has written about the health care crisis:

The Best Corporate Health Plan (6-30-05)

Diagnosis For America (10-25-05)