Bernie Sanders’ health care plan would be a terrible deal for the rich

“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.

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