By Jason Leopold
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who was the sponsor of an amendment that would have allowed individual states to create a single-payer system—essentially a Medicare-for-all bill—voted against the legislation. Kucinich’s amendment was stripped from the House bill at the request of the Obama administration when it was unveiled more than a week ago.
“Instead of working toward the elimination of for-profit insurance, HR 3962 would put the government in the role of accelerating the privatization of health care,” Kucinich said in a statement explaining why he voted against the bill. “In HR 3962, the government is requiring at least 21 million Americans to buy private health insurance from the very industry that causes costs to be so high, which will result in at least $70 billion in new annual revenue, much of which is coming from taxpayers. This inevitably will lead to even more costs, more subsidies, and higher profits for insurance companies – a bailout under a blue cross.
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