WASHINGTON - If Medicare is a good thing, then why not expand it? So say Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

In what they called “bold action” to address the ailing U.S. healthcare system, the two staunch Democratic leaders introduced April 25 a bill to make affordable healthcare accessible to all Americans through a single payer – the U.S. government.

The "Medicare For All Act" (H.R. 2034) calls for coverage to be provided through Medicare and the Federal Employees Health Benefits to be phased in over five years and financed through a 7 percent payroll tax to employers and a 1.7 percent tax to workers.

By comparison, businesses providing coverage today spend an average of 13 percent of payroll to cover their workers, Dingell said.
 
Under the bill, employers will also be free to offer healthcare through private payers and the current Medicaid system for the poor and disabled will remain unaltered.

The two lawmakers outlined how healthcare IT would help improve care and reduce costs.

“Information technology can make a real difference in patient care,” Dingell and Kennedy said in a statement. “Computerized medical records, coupled with decision support software, can help avoid dangerous medical errors, assist in coordinating care for patients receiving services from multiple providers, help patients take responsibility for their own health, and improve the quality of care.”

 “Under Medicare for All, health care providers will be rewarded for improving the quality of care they give to patients. One measure of healthcare quality will be appropriate use of information technology systems that improve care quality and reduce costs,” the leaders said

The Communications Workers of America, representing some 700,000 workers, endorsed the bill, calling it “an important step toward comprehensive reform of our nation’s healthcare system,” and attributing its likely success to building on the Medicare program “one of our most effective public policy initiatives.”