ABC News' Medical Editor Dr. Tim Johnson says the U.S. health-care system is in Critical Condition
Johnson: And the Republicans in general are very much opposed to that. But at the same time, they realize that Medicare is an example of something that works in part. It needs to be reformed, we need to have a drug benefit, we need to improve the services. They’re behind the times. We need to probably spend more money, believe it or not. At least on some of the administration. But, the same Republicans who don’t want a single-payer system would be loathe to say to our senior citizens, “We’re going to take away from you the one single-payer system we do have” — it’s called Medicare.
Jennings: We’re coming into an election year. It’s clearly a hot political subject. Do you think there is the political will in the country to compromise and provide a system with which all people of all political ideologies would agree?
Johnson: I would like to think so. I’m probably pessimistic about it, but with the latest poll results from our own poll, I’m more optimistic because all of a sudden we have a majority of people who are thinking in that direction. And that is what it’s going to take —a political majority to put pressure on congress. I think the heart of the American people want to do something right, in terms of the uninsured, and I think that the politicians will be dragged along.
Jennings: Conventional wisdom holds that, I think, that with the uninsured, they still have access to American medical care, they have it in the emergency room.