Washington Post Ed Board: “No Matter What Sanders Says, There’s No Medicare-For-All Without Tradeoffs”

WASHINGTON – As U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) continues to face tough questions about the high costs and unaffordable middle-class tax hikes associated with his Medicare for all legislation, the editorial board of The Washington Post writes that “in reality, Medicare-for-all is not the only way to get to universal coverage; it is just the highly disruptive one Mr. Sanders prefers.  In doing so, he deeply mischaracterizes how difficult adopting it would be.  A Congressional Budget Office analysis released Wednesday underscores why.” 

The CBO’s nonpartisan analysts found the consequences “difficult to predict” because all they had to rely on were experiences from “previous changes that were much smaller in scale.”  One thing that was clear: Many of the massive numbers of Americans employed under the current system would have to find new jobs.  Under a Sanders-style system, the employer-based health-care plans that most non-elderly Americans use would also be eliminated … Combining low doctor payments and generous benefits, the CBO report says, would create a cascade of problems: “a shortage of providers, longer wait times, and changes in the quality of care, especially if patient demand increased substantially because many previously uninsured people received coverage and if previously insured people received more generous benefits.”  Many might be willing to sacrifice the access and perks insured Americans now enjoy in return for cutting administrative hassle and covering more people.  But that is not the future Mr. Sanders is selling. He describes a system with practically no trade-offs.  Such a system does not exist.

To read the full piece, CLICK HERE.