Throughout his presidential campaign, and actually throughout his entire political career, Senator Bernie Sanders has advocated for a single-payer, government-controlled health care system in the U.S. (here) His sound bite is “Medicare for everyone.” This political belief has populist appeal, but neglects to reconcile the fact that the existing Medicare program is in serious financial jeopardy. (here)
Recently, the bipartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and Urban Institute Health Policy Center jointly released a price tag for Senator Sanders’ plan. (here)
They estimated the overall cost for 10 years from 2017 to 2026 to be $33 trillion. Sanders’ tax proposal would raise $15 trillion over that time period, or less than one half the cost of "Medicare for everyone." The national debt would increase $18 trillion.
A Sanders’ campaign spokesperson pushed back and stated that the think tanks “wildly exaggerated” the costs and “understated the savings” achievable through administrative consolidation and price-fixing on prescription drugs. He went on to say that “every major country has adopted a universal health care program.” (here) He neglected to point out that simply having health insurance does not guarantee timely access to medical care.
Medicare became law in 1965 and was seven times over the original budget by 1990, 25 years later. It currently is a major factor in the ever increasing national budget and federal debt. Virtually no government program the size of “Medicare for everyone” has come in under budget. Access to health care for our existing Medicare patients is growing worse because of poor provider payments in the program.
Of course spending can be capped in a government-run, centrally-planned health care system simply by rationing care. Government bureaucrats then get to decide who gets care, how much care each person receives, and the length of waiting lists. Senator Sanders needs to explain to the American public why his plan is better than a health care system that allows patients to be in charge of their own medical care and, with their providers, make their own health care decisions.