American families deserve to know the real impacts of a new government-controlled health insurance system, but some supporters of these proposals have been obfuscating when it comes to the unaffordable costs and risks associated with their calls for new government-controlled health insurance systems – like Medicare for All, the public option and buy-in.

Proponents of Medicare for All “are scrambling to ease concerns that it would create higher costs for many middle-class Americans,” The Washington Post reports. 

Other proponents of a one-size-fits-all system continue to push claims that under Medicare for All, “the middle class would see overall costs go down,” but “economists say that most taxpayers would pay more in taxes than they would save from having the federal government absorb the cost of health-care premiums,” The Post also reports.

These are the facts:

Medicare For All Would Force Americans To Pay More …

Independent analysts estimate the cost of Medicare for All could be more than $32 trillion over 10 years, and the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) finds that even a low-end estimate of $30 trillion over a decade “would mean increasing federal spending by about 60 percent (excluding interest)” and “require the equivalent of tripling payroll taxes or more than doubling all other taxes.” The bill’s author, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) even acknowledged recently that Americans making more than $29,000 per year would “pay more in taxes” for Medicare for all.

… To Wait Longer For Worse Care …

“[P]roviders warn [Medicare for all] could significantly hurt their ability to provide adequate, widespread care. A recent report from the Congressional Budget Office [(CBO)] reinforces this concern: ‘Such a reduction in provider payment rates would probably reduce the amount of care supplied and could also reduce the quality of care,’” writes the Post.

… And Push Americans Into A One-Size-Fits-All System Run By Politicians.

Medicare for all “would force the roughly 150 million Americans who are insured through their employer to switch to a government-run program … Larry Levitt, a health policy expert at the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, said … ‘As a practical matter, Senator Sanders’ Medicare for all bill would mean the end of private health insurance … Employer health benefits would no longer exist, and private insurance would be prohibited from duplicating the coverage under Medicare’” in a report by Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, The ‘Public Option’ And Other So-Called ‘Moderate’ Fallbacks Would Ultimately Lead To The Same Results …

The Wall Street Journal reports that new government health insurance systems like the public option, Medicare buy-in and ‘Medicare for all who want it,’ represent “stepping stones to single payer.” This fact has been acknowledged by journalists, analysts and Democratic presidential candidates.

Americans Don’t Want A New Government-Controlled Health Insurance System …

As 2020 presidential hopefuls continue to face tough questions about their support for new government-controlled health insurance systems, POLITICO reports on the “growing opposition to ‘Medicare for All’” as two new polls – one national and another taken in the critical early Democratic caucus state of Iowa – show declining support for the one-size-fits-all government-run system.

And a new national poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation “probes Democrats’ views about the general approaches to expanding health coverage and lowering costs” and finds that“[m]ost Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (55%) say they prefer a candidate who would build on the Affordable Care Act to achieve those goals. Fewer (40%) prefer a candidate who would replace the ACA with a Medicare-for-all plan.” A separate poll released by Kaiser in July found support for Medicare for All on the decline, as “a larger share of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents would prefer lawmakers build on the existing ACA” and “the share of Democrats who now say they ‘strongly favor’ a national Medicare-for-all plan is down” 12 percentage points in the three months since Kaiser last asked the question.