Medicare for All Myths

This USA Today opinion article exemplifies the myths, propaganda, and falsehoods about Medicare for All. The following text in italics is from author Donald Berwick's article.

The truth is the opposite: Medicare for All would sharply reduce overall spending on health care.

The truth is Berwick's assertion is pure fantasy. Even the Urban Institute, a left-leaning think tank highly respected by Democrats, projects that a plan similar to what Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are pushing would require $34 trillion additional federal spending over its first 10 years (link). For comparison, total federal government revenue is expected to be about $3.44 trillion in 2019. 10 x $3.44 trillion = $34.4 trillion.

Less than 20% of the US population has Medicare now. Yet Berwick says 100% of the population will be covered with bigger benefits (e.g., no copays, no deductibles, long-term care) and it will cost less!

Lastly, Berwick's assertion logically implies that income to health care providers and their support personnel will be sharply reduced. So how many jobs in the healthcare industry does Berwick want to destroy and how deeply does he want to slash the incomes of nurses, orderlies, receptionists, technicians, workers doing billing and collections and claim processing, accountants, doctors, and so forth that remain?

Medicare for All would be simpler, easing the onerous burdens of billing for doctors, endless paperwork for all health care professionals, and navigating the confusing coverage system for patients and families.

More myths. Unless Berwick wants the government to simply dictate low wages for doctors, doctors will still need to bill Medicare, Medicaid and whoever else is standing after the Medicare for All wrecking ball is done with its destruction. Rarely does government action simplify anything. Government epitomizes endless paperwork and bureaucracy. The complicated, confusing healthcare structure now in place was created by government fiats and regulations.

Faced with these facts, opponents of Medicare for All too often revert to myths instead.

Facts? LOL. It is the advocates of Medicare for All like Berwick that have nothing better than their own fabricated myths about what the future with Medicare for All would really be like.

But it is deeply misleading to pretend that this shift is an increase in family health care costs. It is not.

If Medicare for All bans employer-insurance like Bernie Sanders wants, at least in some of his newspeak, how does that not increase healthcare costs for employees and their families? If income or payroll taxes are raised, how does that not effectively increase healthcare costs for employees and their families?

Note that Berwick says nothing about eliminating private insurance. He also says nothing about employer-paid insurance for employees of the federal government, state and local governments, non-profits, unionized workers, and public school systems. Or does Berwick fail to understand the meaning of single in single-payer. It means Medicare pays and nobody else, period.

In summary Berwick's idea of Medicare for All is a mountain of myths.