Bernie Sanders’ health care plan would be a terrible deal for the rich
Sep 14, 2017, 7:44 AM
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
“Health care for all is not only a moral issue, it’s an economic issue,” Bernie Sanders said this week.
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Sanders and small group of Democrats are formally proposing single-payer health care. With an Obamacare repeal stalled they sense an opportunity.
I can see why.
What killed the Republicans’ Obamacare repeal was that it left millions of people without health care. A single-payer system leaves exactly zero people without health care.
Yet, not all Democrats have signed on. Not even Obamacare supporters.
Why is that? Because single-payer costs a lot of money.
Sanders admits it.
“While depending on your income, your taxes may go up to pay for this publicly-funded program. That expense will be more than offset.”
You’d pay no premiums, no co-pays, no deductibles, and everything — including vision and dental — would be covered.
But now let me throw a number at you: a study by the Urban Institute, which has been described as a “liberal think tank,” calculated that if the Sanders plan was in effect right now, federal health care spending this year would be $2.5 trillion higher. To raise that kind of money, the average individual income tax bill, which is now about $10,000, would need to jump 80 percent to $18,000.
That increase is indeed less than a lot of middle-class people are paying for health insurance. But for taxpayers in the higher brackets, the brackets where the big political donors hang out, an 80-percent increase is a terrible deal.
For Democrats who sign on to this, that could mean some pretty awkward fundraising calls.