More on Sanders and Medicare for All

Why won't Sanders put a reasonable budget for Medicare for All on the table?

If you read his "Options to Finance Medicare for All," and even if one accepts all of his numbers, they only add up to about $1.62 trillion per year. That already includes a 4% taxable income surcharge on everyone that pays taxes. Current Medicare, which covers 60 million of the 330 million in the US, spent $740 billion in 2018. You can add to that the famous 20% of Part B not covered which is another $67 billion currently paid by the patient.

So that's $800 billion for current Medicare. Sanders is talking about expanding 60 million to 330 million plus adding a whole bunch of things, dental and routine vision for instance, that aren't covered by current Medicare.

That's going to drive expenses up by a lot. I don't think $2.4 trillion to $2.6 trillion or even higher a year is unreasonable as an estimate.

That would leave him almost $1 trillion a year or more short. Until he puts a M4A budget on the table I don't want anything to do with him.

Medicare for All

Medicare for All is a great idea but is it practical?

Well, I suppose it all depends upon what "practical" means.

My whole problem with M4A is that the term implies different things to different people and I suspect that most of those people are in for a rude surprise when they find out what’s really feasible and what it’s going to take to make it happen.

I'm pretty sure that “for profit” healthcare wouldn’t go away even with Medicare for All. We would get rid of the middle man and be in a position to negotiate better prices but anyone who thinks medical groups aren’t going to make profits is kidding themselves.

Doctors certainly aren’t going to start working for free.

Elizabeth Warren at least tried to quantity M4A and may have sabotaged her campaign by doing so. Bernie Sanders is being a bit dishonest by not quantifying it and allowing people to believe whatever they want to believe.

If I was running against Sanders I would do everything I could to pin him down on (1) what he envisions will be included in M4A, (2) what he estimates the yearly funding needs to be and (3) how he intends to raise those funds. Until he does that he’s just waving his hands in the air.