Health Care for ALL Americans: We're asking the wrong questions

Paul Waldman provides the answer to the question posed by opponents to universal health care.

"With Democrats becoming increasingly ambitious in their policy goals, Republicans believe they have a killer answer to any new proposal: How are you going to pay for it?

The fact that this question is asked in complete bad faith — the GOP is the party that recently passed a $1.5 trillion tax cut for corporations and the wealthy without bothering to pay for it — doesn’t mean it can’t be effective. And one reason is that it will probably also be asked by the Washington media, people who as a group are enthusiastic deficit scolds, at least when it comes to programs that actually benefit ordinary people."

Opponents to universal health care (Medicare for all) claim it will cost $40 million (in next 10 years) that we don't have. Waldman reports:

"This $50 trillion number comes from the most recent projections by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which say that America will spend $3.7 trillion on health care this year, a figure that will increase by 5 to 6 percent per year in the coming years. Their projections go only to 2026, so I extended them out two years, assuming a 6 percent increase per year, to reach a full decade from 2019 to 2028. When you add the numbers up, you get $50.3 trillion over the next 10 years. That’s what we’re going to spend if we change nothing."

So, our choice is to pay $50 trillion on our current broken system or $40 trillion on a system that covers all Americans.

Details: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/09/20/were-asking-the-wrong-question-about-medicare-for-all/?utm_term=.db64c296c163&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1