A growing number of Democrats are joining Bernie Sanders in the campaign to enact a "Medicare for All" healthcare plan. Many Democrats have spoken broadly about the plan and admit that taxes will have to be raised to pay for it. A new study shows how expensive the "Medicare for All" plan will be.
The study, produced by Mercatus Center at George Mason University, estimates the cost of the plan will be a staggering $32.6 trillion over ten years. That would account for over ten percent of the GDP by 2022, and rise to over 12% by 2031.
The study warned that those numbers are conservative, and the actual costs could be much higher if the government is unable to negotiate lower drug prices and eliminate bureaucratic waste.
The report found that even if the United States doubled the current tax rates, there still would not be enough money to cover the cost of the program.
The study also warned that healthcare availability and quality could decrease due to an increased demand coupled with "cutting payments to providers by more than 40 percent."
M4A would markedly increase the demand for healthcare services while simultaneously cutting payments to providers by more than 40 percent, reducing payments to levels that are lower on average than providers’ current costs of providing care. It cannot be known how much providers will react to these losses by reducing the availability of existing health services, the quality of such services, or both.
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