Originally Posted by chunkstyle
Here’s the bill.

S.1129 - Medicare for All Act of 2019

It was a big topic of debate between the progressive candidate, the author of the bill, and the rest of the neoliberal candidates in the Democratic primary held in the United States. Some candidates offered token support, most candidates equivocated or aligned with the industry’s current system of for profit health services

There have been many good research publications showing how the current system produces thousands of unnecessary premature deaths, bankruptcies and poor outcomes while extracting twice the costs per patient as our peer countries.

Those are secondary concerns for some. Political ideology and identifying with Ruling class interest have blunted their curiosity to its proposals.

It was scored by various interest parties beyond CBO. Most notably By the Koch sponsored Mercatus Center examination that found it saved 2 trillion over 10 years.

Asterix aplenty and caveats as well, they confirmed it would shave 2 trillion with 38 trillion projected spending over 10 years.

This claim rates Three Pinocchios

As the Author pointed out here: Even Doubling Taxes Wouldn’t Pay for ‘Medicare for All', that figure can only be arrived at if you assume - as Bernie did - that all providers will take a 40% cut in pay without reducing services, which he described as unlikely.

...Some have seized on a scenario in my estimates showing a slight decline in projected total public and private health expenditures under Medicare for All. But that decline, relative to current projections, relies on an assumption that Medicare for All would immediately and dramatically cut provider payment rates by roughly 40%. Without such cuts, Medicare for All would drive national health costs further upward, and the federal price tag would be $38 trillion during its first 10 years.



In the fourth sentence of the report’s abstract, Blahous wrote, “It is likely that the actual cost of M4A would be substantially greater than these estimates, which assume significant administrative and drug cost savings under the plan, and also assume that healthcare providers operating under M4A will be reimbursed at rates more than 40 percent lower than those currently paid by private health insurance...


So, if by "Caveats" you mean "Also, this isn't going to happen", sure. Also, if a fleet of space unicorns show up and begin pooping mint chocolate hershey's kisses all over, we will have more mint chocolate hershey's kisses. It's just not what you would call "likely".

Last edited by CPWILL; 11/18/20 08:44 AM.
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