Despite failing efforts across the country to contain the spread of COVID-19, former Vice President Joe Biden announced Monday that he would not reconsider his opposition to Medicare for All. During an interview on MSNBC, he said, "Single-payer will not solve that at all." We asked physician and epidemiologist Abdul El-Sayed if he believed a single-payer system could have helped to contain the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. "Absolutely, no doubt," he says. The root of the problem, he says, is that in a profit-driven healthcare system, "there is no incentive for prevention." Hospitals stay afloat through elective surgeries and reactive treatment of sick patients. "Imagine you have a system that rewarded keeping people healthy rather than taking care of them after they get sick. That is what Medicare for All would have done."

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