Tag: Medicare for All

Pence’s funny math on Green New Deal, Medicare-for-all costs

Washington Post logo“You know, watching the debate the other night, with all the Democrat candidates standing so far on the left, I thought that debate stage was going to flip over. … In fact, if you add up every budget-busting proposal they offer — from Medicare-for-all and the Green New Deal — it would actually cost every household in America over $900,000 over the next 10 years.”

— Vice President Pence, in remarks at the Detroit Economic Club, Aug. 19, 2019

Pence said every U.S. household would have to pay $900,000 over the next decade to cover the cost of Medicare-for-all and the Green New Deal.

The median U.S. household income was $61,372 in 2017, so the vice president is making one of those huge, scary claims that immediately draws our attention — and skepticism.

We’ve never seen such an exorbitant estimate. Pence is saying these two Democratic proposals would cost more than $100 trillion, or roughly five times the national debt.

Four Pinocchios

View the complete August 22 article by Salvador Rizzo on The Washington Post website here.

Would Medicare-for-all mean hospitals for none?

Washington Post logo“If you go to every hospital in this country and you ask them one question, which is, ‘How would it have been for you last year if every one of your bills were paid at the Medicare rate?’ Every single hospital administrator said they would close. And the Medicare-for-all bill requires payments to stay at current Medicare rates. So to some extent, we’re supporting a bill that will have every hospital closing.”

— Former congressman John Delaney, at a Democratic presidential candidate debate, Miami, June 26, 2019

In a crowded stage featuring many candidates who support Medicare-for-all, Delaney stood out with a doomsday prediction that it would force all hospitals to close.

Shifting the U.S. health-care industry to a single-payer system such as Medicare-for-all would be a huge endeavor, and it’s impossible to foresee every potential consequence. But we couldn’t find any expert or research study supporting the former Maryland congressman’s claim that Medicare-for-all would cause widespread hospital closures.

This is a good case study in how a snappy talking point can stray far from reality, especially when it comes to a complex policy issue such as health care. Let’s dig in.

View the complete July 3 article by Salvador Rizzo on The Washington Post website here.

Medicare-for-all v. Medicare-for-less: Trump’s proposed cuts put health care at center of 2020 race

A new proposal by President Trump to slash Medicare spending puts Republicans in a political bind ahead of the 2020 election as Democrats are pitching an expansion of the popular health-care program for all Americans.

Trump’s 10-year budget unveiled Monday calls for more than $845 billion in reductions for Medicare, aiming to cut “waste, fraud and abuse” in the federal program that gives insurance to older Americans. It’s part of a broader proposed belt-tightening effort after deficits soared during the president’s first two years in office in part due to massive tax cuts for the wealthy.

The move immediately tees up a potential messaging battle between Democratic proposals for Medicare-for-all — castigated by Republicans as a socialist boondoggle — and a kind of Medicare-for-less approach focused on cutting back on spending, from the GOP.

View the complete March 12 article by Toluse Olorunnip and Sean Sullivan on The Washington Post website here.

Medicare for all will work better

To the Editor:

I recently attended a presentation organized by the Plymouth Indivisible group, by Dr. Timothy Magee, representing the nonprofit “Healthcare for all Minnesota” in which he made an excellent argument for universal and single payer health care.

We learned that the United States has health services that are about average compared to European countries and Canada, and in many ways not as good, but we pay significantly more for that care.  A large portion of that extra expense is ultimately used to run the health care insurance system, and another large portion is spent by health care provides doing their part of the insurance paperwork. Continue reading “Medicare for all will work better”

Sen. Al Franken comes out for single-payer health-care plan offered by Bernie Sanders

The following article by Jennifer Brooks was posted on the Star Tribune website September 13, 2017:

U.S. senators hear from MNsure CEO while hammering out a bipartisan fix they hope could stabilize state insurance exchanges.

Sen. Al Franken, with Delaware Sen. Thomas Carper, headed to a luncheon with fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. Credit: SUusan Walsh, AP

WASHINGTON – Minnesota’s efforts to drive down premiums for coverage sold on the state health insurance exchange could come undone by the end of the month unless the federal government acts.

After seven years of partisan wrangling over Obamacare, U.S. senators worked Tuesday to hammer out a bipartisan fix they hope could stabilize state insurance exchanges before millions of Americans are hit with rate hikes. The CEO of MNsure, Minnesota’s exchange, told a Senate panel Tuesday that the state may have mere days left to avoid the kind of hikes that state lawmakers took expensive steps to avoid earlier this year. Continue reading “Sen. Al Franken comes out for single-payer health-care plan offered by Bernie Sanders”