The Democratic Party’s congressional hopeful Amish Shah envisions imposing socialist policies for the nation, newly uncovered video reveals.
Shah, candidate for the 1st Congressional District, advocated for socialism during a campaign event for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential run. Shah spoke in support of Sanders and socialized medicine at a town hall in Phoenix in April 2019.
Shah was a state representative for LD24 at the time. The Arizona for Bernie 2020 organization, the host of the event, recognized Shah as belonging to their coalition, whose members included Phoenix Democratic Socialists, Progressive Democrats of America of Arizona, Our Revolution of Phoenix, and Phoenix Workers Alliance.
In his remarks, Shah advocated for complete government control over healthcare by separating it from the free market, and said that socialized medicine was what attracted him to Sanders as a candidate. Shah said Sanders’ socialist proposals had improved the Democratic Party platform.
“We have a system that is based on the free market, and there are a lot of things that are wrong with that. So no other industrialized country, a first-world country, offers healthcare through a free market because it’s not really a system. Free markets work for things like TVs and Toyotas,” said Shah. “We need universal, single-payer Medicare for All throughout this country.”
Sanders’ latest Medicare for All proposal, Senate Bill 1506, would automatically enroll all individuals upon birth or residency. Citizens would be forced to participate and would not be allowed to opt out of Medicare.
The bill would prohibit cost-sharing and other charges with the exception of prescription drugs. Private health insurers and employers would be restricted to offering coverage that supplements Medicare benefits, and would be prohibited from offering the same benefits.
Sanders’ Medicare for All would not eliminate coverage provided through the Department of Veterans Affairs, TRICARE, or the Indian Health Service.
Shah compared the disparate administration rates between Medicare and private, and said that the “hundreds of billions of dollars” invested into traditional insurance administration were a “waste” that should go to the uninsured.
“Medicare has a 1% admin rate, meaning 99% of the dollars go back into providers whereas the traditional insurance model, you’re talking about 12-15% that’s spent on admin: that’s utilization review, that’s marketing, that’s CEO salaries, that’s stockholders, blah, blah, blah, stuff that doesn’t actually get back to helping the patient. And that’s a waste,” said Shah.
In addition to what Shah described, insurance administration rates cover the costs of information and other technologies, claims processing, customer service, records management, care coordination, provider contract negotiations, and regulatory compliance.
Shah claimed Americans have less economic mobility than European countries. Certain research has indicated that economic mobility between American and European countries are similar when adjusted to isolate pre-tax, pre-transfer income.
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Ben Petersen issued a statement criticizing Shah’s remarks in the newly uncovered footage.
“Amish Shah just got caught on tape confessing his love affair with Bernie Sanders and bragging about how the socialist senator ‘improved’ the Democrat Party,” said Petersen. “Shah can’t run from his radical record showing he’s a Bernie Bro through and through, and voters will reject his socialist agenda.”
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