Using Facts to Refute Medicare for All

Medicare for All is the left’s newest branding strategy for socialized medicine in the United States. Promoted by several Democratic presidential candidates and introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, its backers say it would improve the cost and quality of health care in America.

With a compliant media touting its alleged benefits, Medicare for All holds majority support among the American public. Once its details – such as elimination of private health insurance – are exposed, that support drops, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Kaiser’s results should guide conservative arguments against socialized health care. Facts should be easily personalized by the public, and arguments should be based upon data which is intellectually credible and emotionally engaging.

In other words: it’s time for a lot of math.

America spends a lot more.

The first step to refuting Medicare for All is to admit that we spend too much on health care. America spends more than $9,000 per person per year on health care, according to a 2017 study of OECD nations’ health care spending. That’s more than twice the OECD average. Our mixed health care outcomes aren’t worth spending so much more money than other nations, though part of the reason that we are far behind the norm in some areas is less about healthcare and more about lifestyle choices like unhealthy eating and little exercise.

Some alleged measures of worse outcomes are questionable. Our shorter lifespans compared to other first-world nations, for example, can partially be attributed to overall lower outcomes, higher suicide rates, and drug overdoses. Similarly, our infant mortality rate is often not compared apples to apples with other nations because there is no consistent definition of when a baby is recorded as born.

“The first step to refuting Medicare for All is to admit that we spend too much on health care. America spends more than $9,000 per person per year on health care, according to a 2017 study of OECD nations’ health care spending. That’s more than twice the OECD average.”

The people making their living off healthcare are going to have to settle for a lot less to bring the costs down.

The people making their living off healthcare are going to have to settle for a lot less to bring the costs down.

IMHO the current healthcare system is badly bloated with do-nothing administration jobs. Particularly those dealing with the present nonsensical billing regime.

If resources were redirected from those jobs back to the actual caregivers it would be a good thing.

It would create a massive spike in the unemployment rate however.

I think regardless of which “For All” plan they implement, one or the other will be subsumed.

Either:

Medicare For All will absorb and eliminate Medicaid

Medicaid For All will absorb and eliminate Medicare

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