on February 29, 2020
Bernie Sanders wants to provide Medicare for All.
His estimate of the cost is $30 trillion dollars.
To give you an idea of the enormity of this amount relative to everything else, according to the World Bank, the GDP, gross domestic product, of the entire United States in 2017 was 19.39 trillion dollars.
Medicare for All is Healthcare for None!
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And remember this $30 trillion is only the beginning! Healthcare is not a one and done, every year someone somewhere in this country is going to get sick and/or injured and need care.
How does that make you feel?
Compare the cost of $30 trillion with the $4 trillion Americans spent on healthcare last year.
This $4 trillion represents the total spending by everyone, including the Federal Government, all health insurance companies, all health insurance premiums paid, Medicare, Medicaid, doctor payments, hospital bills, tests, etc., etc.
Of the $4 trillion, American households paid only about ¼ of the cost, a little more than $1 trillion. Adopting Medicare for All will multiply our healthcare costs almost tenfold times; and our out of pocket expenses will increase by 30 times.
HOW WILL THIS BE FUNDED?
To raise $30 trillion, the US would have to tax every person who earns $100,000 or more per year over $2million dollars, and, the way the plan is structured, a bill would continue to come every year.
Put another way, if every billionaire and millionaire in this country, Bezos, Gates, Buffett, Bloomberg, Zuckerberg, Trump, etc., contributed 100% of their annual income in taxes to fund Medicare for All, it would not be enough to cover the $30 trillion Sanders says we would need.
AND REMEMBER, MEDICARE IS NOT FREE!!!!
Part of that $4 trillion was premiums people paid for Medicare. Only Part A, hospitalization, is technically free.
To provide the rest, you have to acquire either a Medicare Advantage plan or Medicare Supplemental Plan.
Medicare Advantage Plans, while cheap, are very structured, limited in what they cover, have long wait times for appointments and limited access to doctors.
Yes, it’s true, if you qualify under the income guidelines, you can get Medicare Advantage for free.
But those who qualified always got free healthcare. That being said, if you don’t qualify, costs for these plans can reach as high as $300 per month.
If you want to travel to visit your grandchildren who live out of state, when you do, you’ll have to pay for your own healthcare.
If you want something more like PPO plan, the Supplemental Plan is your option. Those are pricy.
You have to purchase Part B coverage, Part G Coverage (if you are not grandfathered into a Part F plan), and, if you want drug coverage you have to purchase Part D coverage.
Total cost averages about $350 per month. But, based on your income, you could be charged an additional $500 per month.
WHERE CAN WE GO FROM HERE!
It strikes one that the increase in taxes would most impact the young who think Medicare for All is a good idea.
Increases in taxes make it less likely they will buy a home, own a car, or invest in this country.
Limited economics makes it more likely they will avoid coverage, or adopt Advantage plans, limiting their ability to travel and enjoy experiences that give their life meaning.
Clearly, this is an impossibility; significantly higher taxes would break the current middle class in this county.
It would also destroy the future middle class of this county.
Last year, the US government spent about $4.5 trillion dollars and was only able to raise about $3.5 trillion of that. For some reason, people weren’t stepping up to pay more.