NY Single-Payer In$anity

A RAND study out last week makes it clear that full-blown state-run health care would be a disaster for New York, absent boatloads of pixie dust. Yet Democrats are racing to push the idea all the same.

The report found that, under single-payer care, more people would be covered; indeed, legislation calls for state-sponsored care for every person in New York, even illegal immigrants.

Health-care spending wouldn’t necessarily rise . . . as long as Albany trimmed administrative costs and kept a tight lid on payments to health-care providers. Good luck with that.

Meanwhile, taxpayers would get clobbered. The state would need to slap huge new levies on workers, businesses and even investment income. By 2031, New York’s top personal income-tax rate, already among America’s highest, would have to soar from under 9 percent to 29 percent.

Add the city’s near 4 percent take and DC’s 37 percent, and the total tax bill for Gotham’s top earners would come close to 70 percent. That’s surreal.

Albany would also have to cross its fingers that not too many top earners flee the state to avoid the tax. “Even a small tax migration or avoidance effect” could jeopardize the plan’s finances, notes RAND.

Oh, yeah: The feds would also have to sign on. Not likely.

No matter. Let’s pretend Albany found some magical way to roll out socialized medicine in New York. Residents would still likely be left with worse care: worse facilities, less time with doctors and long waits to see them. If you like your health plan now, too bad: Not only would you have to give it up, you’d also have little choice about what you could switch to.

RAND’s findings echo those of similar singlepayer studies: The Mercatus Center and the Urban Institute both pegged Bernie Sanders’ national Medicare-for-All at an off-the-charts $33 trillion over 10 years.

The Democratic governor of Sanders’ own state, Vermont, ditched its single-payer plan thanks to sticker shock. So did deep-blue California, where costs would’ve been double the entire state budget.

Yet in New York, Democrats want such a program here yesterday. Assemblyman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan), sponsor of the New York plan, bizarrely called the RAND report a “triumph.”

“RAND shows we can make sure every New Yorker gets the care they need and does not suffer financially,” he told Politico New York. Democratic state Senate candidates also push the plan, as does Cynthia Nixon.

As for Gov. Cuomo, last year he called singlepayer “exciting” and vowed to sign a bill. Last week an aide would only say staff is “reviewing” RAND’s findings.

What’s to review? RAND just confirms what everyone’s long known: “Free” health care for all is not just unaffordable, but also a guarantee of

rotten care.