Medicare policy has been conspicuously absent from the 2024 presidential race. Health policy scholar Paul Ginsburg thinks this is because both Democrats and Republicans understand that the reforms needed in the Medicare system are not going to be popular.
“Our policy is broken,” Ginsburg said in his conversation with First Opinion editor Torie Bosch on this week’s podcast. “Our most important policy issues, the ones that most likely need to be solved, won’t be talked about because it’s unpleasant. That means the public is really losing out.”
Bosch spoke with Ginsburg about his belief that single-payer health care will likely never work in the U.S. and how the two parties differ in their approach to health care policy — Democrats support more regulation of the existing market while Republicans tend to be skeptical that these regulations can work out. Ginsburg also noted that in some cases Congress has come together on what he calls nonpartisan health care issues, such as what to do about pharmacy benefit managers.
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