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Open to Debate

#171 - Should We Replace Private Insurance With Medicare For All?

Open to Debate

Open to Debate

Education, Society & Culture, News, Government, Politics

4.52.1K Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2019

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As the nation gears up for the 2020 election, Democrats are promising bold new changes to the American health care system, including scrapping private health insurance and adopting “Medicare for All.” Is this a bold and effective way to repair health care in America? Or will it inflate the already swelled federal deficit? Learn more about upcoming debates at www.iq2us.org/buy-tickets Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:07.0

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0:12.0

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0:19.0

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0:30.0

Hi everybody, I'm John Don Van, host and moderator of Intelligent Square US debates.

0:35.0

A while back, we held a debate in which the resolution was the US healthcare system is terminally broken.

0:42.0

And guess what? That resolution was actually defeated. And yet the idea that the system is broken is certainly the presumption driving another idea that more Americans are telling pollsters that they are now in favor of and that democratic candidates for president are endorsing and promoting.

0:58.0

And that is the idea of a single payer system where the government picks up the bill for everyone's healthcare coverage.

1:06.0

And private insurance more or less goes away at least for most people. Once seen as an outlier proposal, single payer is definitely getting a rhetorical tryout for this period in time.

1:17.0

And we thought it has the makings of a debate. So we did it. We brought together two teams of two, four debaters in all who have spent a lot of time thinking about these questions.

1:27.0

We brought them to the K playhouse in New York City and asked them to take a stand to argue yes or no. On this resolution, replace private insurance with Medicare for all.

1:38.0

This Oxford style debate went in three rounds. And then our live audience in New York City chose the winner. Let's meet our debaters.

1:46.0

First the team arguing for the resolution. Please welcome Dr. Adam Gaffney.

1:51.0

Adam, welcome to Intelligent Square, US. You are a pulmonary specialist. You're the doctor on the stage at Harvard's Cambridge Health Alliance.

2:01.0

You're also president of Physicians for a national health program. Adam, it's great to have you on the stage. Thanks so much.

2:08.0

Thank you for having me.

2:09.0

And let's meet your partner, please ladies and gentlemen. Welcome Joe Sandberg.

2:12.0

Hi Joe, you are a progressive entrepreneur, your co-founder of aspiration.com. You're also co-founder of the advocacy group, Working Hero Action.

2:23.0

You are one of the nation's top activists for the earned income tax credit, which helps low income families. It's great to have you on the stage. Thanks so much.

2:31.0

Thanks for having me.

2:32.0

And we have two debaters arguing against the resolution. Replace private insurance with Medicare for all. Please first welcome Nick Gillespie.

2:40.0

Hi Nick, welcome back. You have debated with us twice before. You're undefeated by the way. So a lot of stake here for you tonight.

...

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