but there will be a lot of different options. some don t eliminate private insurance. some are single payer systems. i think that debate will be a very rich one. sahil and betsy, when you look at the conversation that we ve had at this table about the field of 2020 candidates and what voters are looking for, bernie sanders is a 77-year-old straight white man in a diverse field of democrats. he was asked about it. he said i want to tell vermont this morning before he made his run. he says we have got to look at candidates not by the color of their skin, not by their sexual orientation or their gender and not by their age. i think we ve got to try to move us toward a monodiscriminatory society that looks at people based on what they stand for. does bernie sanders represent the face of the democratic party? he does not look like the rising democratic voter. but he is also trying to play catchup on the issues that hurt him the last time around. he s talking about racial
these different ways. here is the rate of people. one of obama care s main goals was to reduce the uninsured rate. the number of uninsured americans dropped precipitously. they have dropped by nearly half from a high of 16% to about 9% today, but 28 million americans remain unensurinsured. they have guaranteed all of their citizens have coverages. the exception is the united states of america. now many of those nations have what is called single payer systems. the government is insurance for all residents or citizens and pays their health care expenses except for some co-pays and upgrades.
some are single payer systems like canada or great britain. most of them are not a medicare for all idea. this is just one type of way to do it. right, absolutely. and medicare for all, as you just mentioned, can also kind of have different variations to it. you can have kind of a way for you to what senator harris is referring to is really kind of truly what you said that senator sanders started, kind of a single payer health system. but i think the goal is to have care for everyone. and the way you get there in a medicare for all system can be different. you don t have to just turn a light switch on overnight and turn everything off. and you can also even have options where you allow adults to buy into medicare in addition to having a public option in the exchange, which i think a lot of us forget, but when the affordable care act was being drafted, actually nancy pelosi as speaker then had the house democrats drafting a public
that have socialized single payer systems and you ll reduce care. seniors will lose care. in addition the 170 million of us who have employer insurance under many of the plans that goes away. it is outlawed. you have to go on a government single payer system. bill: do you believe in covering americans for pre-existing conditions? absolutely and the president has made it absolutely clear that he will not permit any repeal and replace of obamacare that doesn t have an effective vehicle for insuring that people with pre-existing conditions have access to affordable health insurance. sandra: final question mr. secretary. this is to quote the report and how it concludes on the changes to the prescription pricing. medicare could achieve significant savings if prices in the u.s. were similar to other large market-baresed economies. can you quantify anything for us today? we ll drive 30% reduction in spending in this part of the
everyone goes into a medicaid paul: more like medicaid. huge wait times, nobody can get into a primary care doctor let alone a specialist. paul: kate, what they would say, democrats, no more private profit from the insurance companies, you would have administration, low administrative costs because the government with its legendary efficiency would be running the show, look, those numbers are just not fair. yeah, paul, that s ridiculous, i mean, he made the most generous possible assumptions in his paper about savings from administrative costs, saving from lower prescription drugs, i mean, progressives point to these systems in small countries that they say are successful. obviously would take issue with that and clearly too these countries have the luxury of running single payer systems because america drives pharmaceutical innovation which you can expect to come to a stop if government decides how much