‘Medicare for All:’ New name, same bad old idea
About a decade ago, cab riders may have noticed something new about some of the cars taking them around town. Suddenly, facing competition from “green” hybrid cabs, some taxis were simply slapping bumper stickers on their cars claiming their car, too, was environmentally friendly. Immediately, scores of 1990’s-era Ford Tauruses became “green” simply because their bumper stickers said so.
This type of rebranding is now taking place at the federal level, where a tired old idea adorned with a new bumper sticker is once again gaining traction with progressives. When you think about it, “Medicare for All” is a pretty ingenious new name for the same old single-payer health care gambit. It borrows the name of a wellliked federal program and promises it to everyone in America. But it’s just a different name for full governmental control of health care in the U.S. — basically, it’s akin to Old Spice cologne using weird, funny ads to trick people into thinking it’s not love potion for octogenarians.
Last year, Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin announced her support for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) “Medicare for All” plan, saying she wanted to “move forward to expand coverage and make health care more affordable.”
Of course, anyone who believes a full government takeover of the American health care system makes coverage more affordable has likely been stranded on a tropical island for the past decade.
Baldwin and her fellow Democrats have recently pitched themselves as deficit hawks in opposition to the Republican tax cut passed late last year. Baldwin introduced an amendment to last year’s budget to prevent the tax cuts from increasing the deficit.
Yet Medicare — the program Baldwin sees as important enough to expand to every American — is primarily responsible for the enormous debt load the federal government carries. The GOP tax cut is expected to add $1.8 trillion to the federal debt over the next decade; meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office estimates an $84 trillion deficit over the next 30 years, responsible in large part due to Medicare’s ballooning costs. Taxpayers can’t afford the current system, much less a drastic expansion.
Then there is the small matter of how this new single-payer system would be funded. Sanders’ bill makes some preposterous proposals to keep costs in check, such as slashing payments to health care providers by 40% — a cut that would almost certainly put hospitals and doctors out of business and erode the quality of care for all Americans. One recent study puts the total tab for Sanders’ bill at an exorbitant $32 trillion between 20222031.
“Medicare for All” is simply a repackaged attempt to revive an old progressive dream of single-payer health care. Universal government-controlled health care is actually less plausible than President Donald Trump’s dopey plan to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it. In the end, it’s not just putting lipstick on a pig, it’s also dousing it in Old Spice.