
Federal Spending Rises, Total Health Expenditures Drop in Medicare for All Plan
A recent report about Senator Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” plan calls attention to a substantial federal cost increase of $32.6 trillion in spending over 10 years. But, the report also reveals that total cost of healthcare spending would decrease over that 10-year period.
A recent report about Senator Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” plan calls attention to a substantial federal cost increase of $32.6 trillion in spending over 10 years. But, the report also reveals that total cost of healthcare spending would decrease over that 10-year period.
Medicare is the foundation for Sanders’ Medicare for All plan, in which private companies would no longer provide health insurance. The government would deal directly with drug makers, lowering prescription costs. Medicare for All would provide approximately 30 million uninsured US residents healthcare coverage. Sanders, I-Vermont, proposes to eliminate deductibles, coinsurance, copayments, and other cost sharing bills for medical services, while improving benefits by expanding to cover dental, vision, and hearing.
Sanders endorsed a government-run system that covers all Americans in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries, and it continues to be a leading point of discussion for Democrats looking ahead to the 2020 election. “If every major country on earth can
The analysis from the libertarian
Sanders’ team found an error in an initial version of the Mercatus report, which counted a long-term care program that was in the 2016 proposal. It did not, however, count the current one. Blahous corrected it, decreasing his estimate by about $3 trillion over 10 years.
The increase in healthcare spending derives from a shift of funding from private companies to the government. The savings produced by Medicare for All stems from the reduction of physician and hospital reimbursements, lower drug costs from negotiations with drug companies, and lower administrative costs. Also, future spending will decline as more patients are able to get treated for chronic or acute medical problems.
As a result, under Medicare for All, total health spending in 2031 would come to approximately $303 billion lower than what is currently projected. The country’s overall national health expenditures would be $2 trillion lower from 2022 to 2031, according to the Mercatus model.
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