Glancing through the “Medicare for All” Bills one quickly sees “The Secretary” making critically important decisions, including negotiation of drug prices. That Secretary is apparently the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, who is a constantly changing political appointee-hack appointed by the US President.
Thus, if we had “Medicare for All” at the present, as designed by Bernie Sanders and Pramila Jayapal, that all important Secretary would be Alex Azar, former CEO of Eli Lilly & Company and former member of Biotechnology Innovation Organization, a pharmaceutical lobby.
So, apart from shifting the cost of a large part of health care cost burden from employers to tax payers, which is a huge and unsustainable corporate subsidy, there is the problem of centrality of control and decisions made by an ever-changing political appointee. The funding, of course, will be up to the whims of the US Congress, and we know how…