The Medicare battle isn't about providing medical care, any more than Social Security is about providing retirement income, or the Department of Education is about educating children.

A real Medicare program would be means tested, and engineered to provide assistance to the desperately needy, with the goal of making that help as unnecessary as possible. The ideal objective of any assistance or welfare program is to eventually have the absolute minimum of people really need it. Under any normal way of looking at things, the success of a welfare program would be judged by how many people graduate out of it permanently.*
But that's not what it's about, is it.

This is about raw political power, and the goal is to make as many citizens irreversibly dependent on the government for their needs as is possible. For a socialist to get the absolute power they want under a democratic voting system, this is essential. Naturally, the objective in this case is to make sure the MAXIMUM number of people are under the program.

This is what you keep in mind when you throw means testing on the table, and see who likes the idea, and see who hates it. Take notes.

The fact that socializing human needs will wreck the country means nothing...how many leftist leaders across the world have been even slightly slowed down because their nations were reduced to poverty-stricken hellholes? Hey, it's not like THEY'RE going to miss any meals, be denied medical care under the inevitable rationing, or have to ride the bus instead of a limo.

*In a similar way, an education program would be judged by how well the kids are doing, not by how many teachers belong to the union, or how much money the department sucks in.