US Senator Dick Durbin wants to see the United States eventually implement a “Medicare for all” type health care program.
At a news conference in Urbana Thursday, the Illinois Democrat acknowledged that isn’t politically feasible now with Republicans controlling both houses of Congress and the White House.
But Durbin says an interim step could be offering some type of “public option” as part of the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges.
"The interim is to offer a public option, so that people go into the exchanges and have one not-for-profit type Medicare program available … a Medicare Advantage program, for example," Durbin said.
Durbin appeared with doctors and health care advocates to discuss opposition to the Republican health care legislation pending in the Senate.
The Congressional Budget Office says the Republican bill would lower health insurance premiums over the next ten years … but some 22 million Americans would lose coverage, two-thirds of them currently covered by Medicaid.