‘Medicare for all’ would cost $32.6T over 10 years

Considering healthcare will be a central topic in the run up to the 2018 mid-term elections, “Medicare for all” is a concept that is gaining traction among left-leaning politicians. A recent study, though, found that implementation of such a program would cost $32.6 trillion over 10 years.

Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia, a libertarian policy center subsidized by the billionaire conservative activists Charles and David Koch, reported such a policy would require historic tax hikes, according to the AP.

“Enacting something like ‘Medicare for all’ would be a transformative change in the size of the federal government,” said study author Charles Blahous, who was an economic adviser to George W. Bush and a public trustee of Social Security and Medicare during the Obama administration.

While the study cited an increase of $32.6 trillion over 10 years, some economists noted federal healthcare spending would drop overall by just more than $2 trillion.

All U.S. residents would be covered by the proposed health-care policy without copays or deductibles. “Medicare for all” was a central tenet to the 2016 presidential bid of Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont. The democratic socialist released a video thanking the study researchers for showing the plan could produce major savings.

"Let me thank the Koch brothers, of all people, for sponsoring a study that shows that Medicare for All would save the American people $2 trillion over a 10-year period," Sanders said. "I suspected that is not what the Koch brothers intended to do, but that is what is in the study."

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Nicholas Leider, Managing Editor

Nicholas joined TriMed in 2016 as the managing editor of the Chicago office. After receiving his master’s from Roosevelt University, he worked in various writing/editing roles for magazines ranging in topic from billiards to metallurgy. Currently on Chicago’s north side, Nicholas keeps busy by running, reading and talking to his two cats.

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