Bernie Sanders Hyphenated Health Single Payer Plan:

One-Size-Fits-All- One-Size-Covers-All-Medicare-For-All

Bernie Sanders Single Payer Health Plan is out,  and it is a doozey.     It would cost $13.8 trillion over 10 years, but he assures us would save $6 trillion while lowering prescription drug costs and ending insurance company profits.  When combined with his other proposals – free college tuition at public colleges and robust infrastructure spending-  it would cost $17 trillion, and raise taxes to 28.8% of GDP, the higher since World War II.    

The plan covers funding but has none of those devilish operating details -  regulations required,  premium costs to recipients,  how doctors and hospitals would be paid.  It says nothing about rationing.  After all, the maxim goes,  if you take something, you get less of it. And, of course, the massive disruptions of the current system are an incidental detail, to be dealt with later by wise and compassionate Washington bureaucrats.

Not to worry about excessive taxation, says Sanders,  his plan is in line with the tax burdens  of 33  other OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, the  economies  of which  lag behind the U.S., largely because of  burdens of the socialized welfare and health systems.  Never mind.  The U.S. single payer would close the economic gaps between rich and poor and assure universal coverage.

Under the Sanders plan, employers would no longer have to arrange for private health insurance for their workers.The plan would be funded with a 2.2% income tax on workers and a 6.2% payroll tax paid by employers. In addition, he would  raises a variety of other taxes on people earning more than $250,000 a year. Under the plan, the top income-tax rate would reach 52% for those earning more than $10 million a year.

Here from Kaiser Health News,  are what news organizations report  on the Sanders plan.

The New York Times: Bernie Sanders Releases Details On Health Plan That Would Raise Taxes But, He Argues, Save On Costs


Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, under pressure from the Clinton campaign to explain how he would pay for his progressive policies, unveiled a universal healthcare plan on Sunday night that includes sweeping tax increases and a drastic tax hike for the wealthiest. Ahead of a nationally televised Democratic presidential debate, Mr. Sanders said that his “Medicare-for-all” plan was in the spirit of Democratic presidents such as Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and projected that the health savings would outweigh the higher taxes that would pay for the plan. (Alcindor and Rappeport, 1/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Bernie Sanders Releases ‘Medicare for All’ Single-Payer Health Plan

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Sunday that he would pay for his plan for a single-payer health-care system with a suite of new taxes, including a 2.2% “premium” applied to all income, a new payroll tax paid by employers, and a variety of tax increases on the wealthiest Americans. The plan would increase government spending by a total of nearly $14 trillion over 10 years, the campaign said, and together with his other proposals, would bring federal spending to its highest level since World War II. (Meckler, 1/17)

The Associated Press: Sanders Proposes Tax Hike To Pay For Universal Health Care

His campaign said the plan would cost $1.38 trillion a year, but would save $6 trillion over the next decade compared to the current health care system, citing an analysis by Gerald Friedman, an economist at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. But much of the cost would be paid for through a 6.2 percent payroll tax paid by employers and a 2.2 percent "health care premium" on workers. It also relies on taxing capital gains and dividends on families earning more than $250,000 a year, eliminate deductions for wealthy Americans and raising the estate tax. The plan would also raise income taxes on Americans making more than $250,000 a year, including a top tax rate of 52 percent for those earning $10 million annually or more. (Thomas, 1/17)

Reuters: Sanders Releases Universal Healthcare Plan Before Democratic Debate

Clinton's campaign had taken aim at Sanders in recent days, saying the U.S. senator from Vermont had not said how he plans to pay for his healthcare plan and that he needed to before the first party-nominating contest in Iowa on Feb. 1. (Becker, 1/17)

The Washington Post: Hours Before Debate, Sanders Shares Details Of Health-Care Plan That Would Raise Income Taxes

The plan also would be funded in part by an increase in estate taxes on wealthy Americans, as well as a change in the way capital gains and dividends are taxed, the senator said. Sanders has long argued that most families would pay substantially less out of pocket for health care under his approach. (Wagner, 1/17)

The Fiscal Times: Sanders’ Health Care Plan Would Cost $13.8 Trillion Over a Decade

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on Sunday evening unveiled details of his plan to move the country beyond the Affordable Care Act to a universal national health care program that would cost about $13.8 trillion over the coming decade and require a sweeping increase in taxes, especially for the wealthiest Americans. (Pianin, 1/18)