Medicare-for-all is a central pitch for progressives this election cycle, as Americans continue to grapple with shaky coverage and high premiums. But one of its leading supporters is inadvertently highlighting a less-discussed barrier to implementing it: Doctors. Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s wife, a psychiatrist, is facing scrutiny for turning down patients with Medicare at her practice.
She’s hardly alone in this regard. Medicare compensates physicians less than private insurers and boutique clients. As Vox’s Eric Levitz writes, it highlights a challenge not only for Medicare-for-all, but for expanding health-care access in general — making the math work means asking America’s highly-paid doctors to take a pay cut. Fortunately, there are some potential solutions.
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—Benjy Sarlin, senior editor
