General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Bernie Sanders talks universal Medicare, and 1.1 million people click to watch him [View all]ehrnst
(32,640 posts)So, no, it wouldn't work the same way, or cost the same. And in 2014 Switzerland rejected single payer in favor of the ACA type plan they had:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/29/switzerland-rejects-single-payer-will-keep-its-own-version-of-obamacare/
If we had started in the Truman administration, that would have been different. Keeping costs down from the start, and gradually expanding coverage and funding mechanisms as medicine expanded and became more costly isn't an option for the U.S., and that's been left out of "Medicare for All" discussions. And the "Medicare for All" plan is WAY more inclusive - and therefore more expensive - than actual Medicare is.
I'll take actual neutral health care policy experts' opinions over a politician's promises any day of the week.
https://www.urban.org/research/publication/sanders-single-payer-health-care-plan-effect-national-health-expenditures-and-federal-and-private-spending
There is a saying in project management in any large undertaking: Cost-effective, fast or good - you get to pick two. Sanders' MFA plan promises all three, so you know right there, it's not been thought out. Politicians on the Right have been elected convincing people that defunding Parenthood will eliminate abortion, despite the findings and recomendations of those who are experts in public health of the opposite being true. Democrats need to be the party of evidence based policy, it is one of the things that distinguish us from the Right Wing. Forgetting that won't help us in 2018 or 2020.
Health policy analysts with no political agenda state that a gradual expansion of the ACA is the most cost effective and quickest way to get to universal health coverage.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-not-obamacare-anymore-its-our-national-health-care-system/2017/07/28/1a6583fe-73d3-11e7-9eac-d56bd5568db8_story.html?utm_term=.c1aae5cf1c86
I would think that would be the goal of anyone who cares deeply about universal health care, but oddly, it's not the case.