False Premise, False Promise: The Disastrous Reality of Medicare for All

by Sally C. Pipes

American health care is at a crossroads. Health spending reached $3.5 trillion in 2017. Yet more than 27 million people remain uninsured. And it’s unclear if all that spending is buying higher-quality care.

Patients, doctors, insurers, and the government acknowledge that the status quo is unsustainable. America’s last attempt at health care reform―Obamacare―didn’t work. Nearly a decade after its passage, Democrats are calling for a government takeover of the nation’s health care system: Medicare for All.

Supporters of Medicare for All assert the right to health care, promising universal, high-quality care to all Americans at no cost. With a sales pitch like that, it’s no wonder the idea has broad support. Democrats, particularly progressive ones, hope to capitalize on this enthusiasm.

Here Sally C. Pipes makes a case against Medicare for All. Using evidence from government-run systems in Canada and the U.K. she explains how single-payer health care makes a litany of promises it can’t possibly keep.

Between unpacking the plans under consideration in Congress―including the real costs behind the claims―and detailing the horrors of single-payer care in other countries, Pipes highlights how Americans actually fare better than their peers in Canada and the U.K. on health outcomes. Included are heart-wrenching stories of the human costs of free, universal, government-run health care systems.

Pipes concludes with her vision for delivering the affordable, accessible, quality care the American people are looking for.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

162 pages, Paperback

Published January 7, 2020

Reviews

[Amora · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is more of a critique of single-payer systems than Medicare for All, in my opinion. It’s really only one chapter where Pipes focuses on various versions of Medicare for All and what the implications of each is. That aside, this is a good critique of single-payer systems. Pipes argues that single-payer systems around the world have the common theme of wait lists, rationing, and out-of-date technology and pharmaceutical drugs. This is one of Pipes’ shortest books, but it was a nice read.

[Prashanth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Right wing propaganda that cherry picks exceptional cases while ignoring important context, and generalizing that to the whole concept of universal healthcare.

The explanation on why healthcare was not a basic right was awfully unempathetic. Books like these serve as mouthpieces for propagating and legitimizing exclusionary thought.

[Chris White · Rating 1 out of 5]

I legitimately can't, in one review, express just how hilariously garbage the arguments made in this book are. Three highlights from the first chapter-and-a-half:
* Sally tries to make a false equivalence between current Medicare and "Medicare for All" (so named because it's a familiar name, not because one program is even tangentially related to the other).
* She claims healthcare is not a right after a gallon of word soup containing semantic arguments based on how "nobody can truly define" what a right to healthcare would be.
* She managed to put the idea that "many will lose their job in the insurance market" and "the government will have to hire thousands to work on M4A" two sentences apart without managing to connect the dots.

The entire final 3/4 of the book is a parade of arguments from emotion, cherry-picking people who had unfortunate experiences in Canadian and UK healthcare, ignoring that both countries' programs are largely loved by their populations; nobody claims that the healthcare systems in those countries are perfect and her exaggerations rarely seem to coincide with stories about how US healthcare is better than either in any way. It's the conservative ideology of not believing things deserve regulation unless they can be 100% perfect at its finest, and a hilarious ignorance of the literal millions of similar and worse stories you could find within current American healthcare simply by checking twitter for a minute.

This is a tangled mess of arguments, false equivalences and philosophical dreck that presents such terrible information that it would require an entire other book to debunk sufficiently.

[Claire Humphrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was disturbed and disgusted to find my mother, Anya Humphrey, quoted in this book as if she was an opponent of the Canadian health care system.

While our family had a tough experience with lack of palliative support for my dad, this experience did not at all make anyone in the family disillusioned with the Canadian system. On the contrary, my mother spent the next decade as a palliative care advocate helping to improve patient experience here. She would not have signed off on her words being used in this way.

When you have to misquote random strangers to make your argument, it's a sign that the argument is pretty weak. And it's especially gross when the subject is someone's unavoidable death and the grief around it.

The author and publisher should be ashamed of themselves. Avoid this book.

[Will Atkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit disingenuous in most of the arguments. Only provided direct comparisons of Canadian/UK single payer programs with the US when the US “won.” In most cases, she just said how bad certain stats were for UK/Canada without mentioning that the US was even worse. In other cases, she made vague arguments while implying that it was due to single payer. An example: she discussed how Canada had an EpiPen shortage in 2018 and implied that this was because of sub-standard healthcare, but never mentioned that the shortage was caused by production delays in Missouri or that Americans were buying Canadian EpiPens due to the American healthcare system allowing them to be sold for thousands of dollars here as opposed to dozens of dollars in Canada. Overall just a biased and disingenuous book.

[Darren Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many will be unhappy with the results and conclusion within this book. However the author has been smart to back up all her claims with the book containing 36 pages of citations! As a public health student I personally understand both sides of the argument. I personally think that a 100% single-payer “Medicare-for-all” system would come at a great cost to the American population. In addition she also address the counter arguments. Regardless of your stance this is a great book outlining some of the issues of single-payer systems with focus on the UK and Canada! Overall great read!

[Stan Sienkiewicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the individual stories provide an example of various points in the book. The opposition view could do the same. Also can find one case opposite any opinion. I’m not criticizing the author but want to state a fact.

The book does show at a macro level how much of the media has misinformed the public. What we need is more open discussion of the facts and not statements to elicit emotional reaction.

I would love to see a five page talking points of this book.

[Don · Rating 1 out of 5]

So bad.

[Kiri Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating ideas to consider but a bit anecdotal at times.