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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will introduce legislation on Wednesday that would expand Medicare into a universal health insurance program with the backing of at least 15 Democratic senators — a record level of support for an idea that had been relegated to the fringes during the last Democratic presidency.
“This is where the country has got to go,” Sanders said in an interview at his Senate office. “Right now, if we want to move away from a dysfunctional, wasteful, bureaucratic system into a rational health-care system that guarantees coverage to everyone in a cost-effective way, the only way to do it is Medicare for All.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Senator Bernie Sanders, along with numerous other leading Democrats, announced the details of his "Medicare-For-All" health care plan. Under Sanders' proposal, private health insurance, including both employer-based plans and the individual market, will be phased out to put everyone in America on a government plan. The policy idea is incredibly ambitious, but for now it fails to answer one key question: how much will Sanders' Medicare-For-All plan cost?
Sanders' plan leaves out the details of any tax increases that would go with it. "Rather than give a detailed proposal about how we’re going to raise $3 trillion a year, we’d rather give the American people options,” Sanders told the Washington Post.
originally posted by: Gryphon66
Offer the Federal Employee Benefit Package to all Americans as a buy-in at a subsidized rate.
Make it free to anyone under some arbitrary basic level of income.
Problem solved.
At the time, he initially estimated the plan would cost $13.8 trillion over the first 10 years. But according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Urban Institute, the single-payer system would cost the federal government more like $32 trillion over the first decade, requiring an average annual tax increase of $24,000 per household.
originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: carewemust
You would not be about to say that a person should not have access to health care provision unless they can afford to pay for it, now would you?
That would be a morally unjustifiable position, holding of which makes a person walking dirt, as you probably already know.
requiring an average annual tax increase of $24,000 per household.
We estimate that the approach would decrease the uninsured by 28.3 million people in 2017. National health expenditures would increase by $6.6 trillion between 2017 and 2026, while federal expenditures would increase by $32.0 trillion over that period.
“Under Medicare for All, the average American family will be much better off financially than under the current system, because you will no longer be writing checks to private insurance companies,” Sanders said. “While, depending on your income, your taxes may go up to pay for this publicly funded program, that expense will be more than offset by the money you are saving by the elimination of private insurance costs.”
originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: DanDanDat
While the majority of employed get insurance from their employers, many if not most, pay for part of their own coverage and often for all of the coverage for their dependents. They don't write checks, it comes out of their paycheck.
Just as both employees and employers now "contribute" to medicare, both still would. But at a higher rate.