Sanders Presents Medicare-For-All Plan
Crystal Lu
Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, revealed his new health care plan, Medicare-For-All, at the U.S. Capitol building last Wednesday. The health care legislation will set up a single-payer plan that will attempt to cover all of the people the Affordable Care Act missed.
A single-payer plan has a public agency financing health care, but the care itself will be delivered by private agencies. Under the proposed system, the government would cover all medical needs including hospital visits, reproductive care, and mental health. The plan will eliminate private insurance companies, co-pays, and deductibles.
A study done by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget claims that Sanders’ health plan will cause $25 trillion in spending increase, $11 trillion increase in taxes, and would add $14 trillion to the federal deficit. The plan has not yet been reviewed by the Congressional Budget Office.
However, the Physicians for a National Health Program claim that 95% of households will save money on healthcare with the new plan. Medicare-For-All will also allow the government to negotiate with drug companies, causing wide decreases in drug prices. That is part of the reason many drug companies are against single-payer systems and why drug prices are much lower in countries such as the UK and Canada.
Although Sanders has not faced much support in the past, his new bill is sponsored by 15 Democrats, many of whom are expected to run in the 2020 presidential race including Kamala Harris, D-California, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts. The bill also has over 500,000 “citizen co-sponsors.”
Along with Medicare-For-All, Republicans have also announced plans for a new plan to counter the ACA. Neither partisan plan is likely to pass: Medicare-For-All because of the Republican-controlled Congress and the GOP plan because of continued Democratic opposition.
