DR. MARGARET FLOWERS: Well, it’s so interesting to hear David Cole using these progressive talking points defending the law, because too much of what’s going on here is about politics and not about health policy. I was with a group of physicians and lawyers who filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, asking them to find the individual mandate unconstitutional. We do not believe that it’s right to force people to purchase a private product, especially when that product is defective. When people have private insurance, they still can’t afford to get healthcare, and they still go bankrupt when they have a serious accident or illness. Private insurance is the problem. We don’t want to further privatize our healthcare. The simplest way to address our healthcare crisis is through Medicare for All.

AMY GOODMAN: And what about the decision? If they strike down, for example, the individual mandate, do you consider that a victory, or do you consider that a problem for healthcare in this country?

DR. MARGARET FLOWERS: We would like—yeah, we would like to see the individual mandate struck down. It’s not constitutional. We’re spending $447 billion of our taxpayer dollars to give them directly to a private industry. It’s a corporate welfare on steroids. This bill does help people, and we don’t oppose expanding Medicaid. We don’t oppose trying to regulate insurance. We don’t think that’s going to work. We know that those are not solutions. We believe that every person in this country should have healthcare. Why are we debating these little tiny things—who gets a little bit more, who doesn’t get a little bit more? The conversation we should be having is about what works and what doesn’t work. We’re already spending twice as much as the other industrialized nations per person per year on healthcare. We are paying for lifelong, high-quality comprehensive healthcare; we’re not getting it, and we’re not going to get it until we go to a Medicare for All. That’s the simplest solution.