Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' "Medicare for All" proposal
is coming back in a major way as Democratic presidential hopefuls begin
stumping for 2020.
The government-funded health care system —
strongly opposed by President Trump and fellow Republicans — would expand
benefits beyond what is already offered under former President Barack Obama's
Affordable Care Act. The legislation was first introduced in 2016 by
Sanders, who said it would be another step toward achieving universal health
care.
During a speech to officially launch her 2020 run,
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., declared "health care is a fundamental
right" and vowed to serve her constituents by supporting "Medicare
for All."
In August 2017, Harris became the first Senate Democrat to
support Sanders' "Medicare for All" bill.
“It’s just the right thing to do,” Harris said at the
time, according to The Washington
Post.
Since then, 2020 candidates Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.,
former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, Sen.
Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, have also endorsed
the program.
But while Democrats are embracing the plan, critics point to the
soaring cost of implementing it — something numerous studies put well into
the trillions.
Here's what you need to know.
How much would it cost?
There doesn't seem to be much dispute that a single-payer system
would require tax increases, since the government would essentially take over
premiums now paid by employers and individuals as it replaces the private
health insurance industry. The question is how much.
"Medicare for All" is estimated to cost tens of
trillions of dollars over a decade.
Several independent studies have estimated that government
spending on health care would increase dramatically, in the range of about $25
trillion to $35 trillion or more over a 10-year period. Specifically, a study released over
the summer by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University estimated it
would cost $32.6 trillion — $3.26 trillion per year — over 10 years. For
comparison, the federal budget proposal for the fiscal year 2019 was $4.4
trillion, the Congressional Budget Office states.
Sanders blasted the Mercatus Center's analysis as “grossly
misleading and biased."
“If every major country on earth can guarantee health care to
all, and achieve better health outcomes while spending substantially less per
capita than we do, it is absurd for anyone to suggest that the United States
cannot do the same,” Sanders replied, arguing on his website that his plan
would cost about $1.38 trillion per year. “This grossly misleading and biased
report is the Koch brothers’ response to the growing support in our country for
a ‘Medicare for all’ program.”
Analysis by The New York Times in
2017 showed at least 74 million Americans who currently benefit from
Medicaid would potentially face higher taxes under "Medicare for
All."
“The average of what people would pay when you take into account
taxes, premiums and out-of-pocket costs would go down,” Larry Levitt,
senior vice president for health reform at the Kaiser Family Foundation,
told CNBC in August. “Generally, lower-income people would end up paying less
for health care. But higher-income people would pay a whole lot more. It
depends a lot on which taxes end up getting increased in order to pay for the
new plan.”
However, a recent estimate from
the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts in
Amherst suggests that it could be lower. With significant cost savings, the
government would need to raise about $1.1 trillion from new revenue sources in
the first year of the new program.
House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., has asked
the Congressional Budget Office for a comprehensive report on single-payer. The
CBO is a nonpartisan outfit that analyzes the potential cost and impact of
legislation. Its estimate that millions would be made uninsured by Republican
bills to repeal the Affordable Care Act was key to the survival of Obama's health
care law.
What is "Medicare for
All"?
Many Americans still don't know specifics about the grand
plan. A recent survey from
social research nonprofit NORC at the University of Chicago found almost half
of adults say they haven't heard anything about "Medicare for All."
Here's the basic idea: "Medicare for All" is a
single-payer health insurance plan that would require all U.S. residents be
covered with no copays and deductibles for medical services. The insurance
industry would be regulated to play a minor role in the system.
Almost
half of adults report that they have not heard about Medicare-for-All. More on
public perceptions of the health policy proposal in our latest @AmeriSpeak Spotlight on Health survey: https://bit.ly/2sK0oaT
"[Sanders'] plan will cover the entire continuum of health
care, from inpatient to outpatient care; preventive to emergency care; primary
care to specialty care, including long-term and palliative care; vision,
hearing and oral health care; mental health and substance abuse services; as
well as prescription medications, medical equipment, supplies, diagnostics and
treatments," Sanders' old campaign
website explained. "Patients will be able to choose a health
care provider without worrying about whether that provider is in-network and
will be able to get the care they need without having to read any fine print or
trying to figure out how they can afford the out-of-pocket costs."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/how-much-would-medicare-for-all-cost-democrats-health-care-plan-explained
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