Jake Johnson at Common Dreams writes—'Easy to Pay for Something That Costs Less': New Study Shows Medicare for All Would Save US $5.1 Trillion Over Ten Years:
Confronting the question most commonly asked of the growing number of Americans who support replacing America's uniquely inefficient and immoral for-profit healthcare system with Medicare for All—"How do we pay for it?"—a new paper released Friday by researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) shows that financing a single-payer system would actually be quite simple, given that it would cost significantly less than the status quo.
"It's easy to pay for something that costs less," Robert Pollin, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and lead author of the new analysis, declared during a panel discussion at The Sanders Institute Gathering in Burlingon, Vermont, where Pollin unveiled the paper for the first time.
According to the 200-page analysis of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) Medicare for All Act of 2017, the researchers found that "based on 2017 U.S. healthcare expenditure figures, the cumulative savings for the first decade operating under Medicare for All would be $5.1 trillion, equal to 2.1 percent of cumulative GDP, without accounting for broader macroeconomic benefits such as increased productivity, greater income equality, and net job creation through lower operating costs for small- and medium-sized businesses."
The most significant sources of savings from Medicare for All, the researchers found, would come in the areas of pharmaceutical drug costs and administration.
In a statement, Pollin said his research makes abundantly clear that the moral imperative of guaranteeing decent healthcare for all does not at all conflict with the goal of providing cost-effective care. [...]
Here is the abstract of the analysis of Medicare for All:
This study by PERI researchers Robert Pollin, James Heintz, Peter Arno, Jeannette Wicks-Lim and Michael Ash presents a comprehensive analysis of the prospects for a Medicare for All health care system in the United States. The most fundamental goals of Medicare for All are to significantly improve health care outcomes for everyone living in the United States while also establishing effective cost controls throughout the health care system. These two purposes are both achievable. As of 2017, the U.S. was spending about $3.24 trillion on personal health care—about 17 percent of total U.S. GDP. Meanwhile, 9 percent of U.S. residents have no insurance and 26 percent are underinsured—they are unable to access needed care because of prohibitively high costs. Other high-income countries spend an average of about 40 percent less per person and produce better health outcomes. Medicare for All could reduce total health care spending in the U.S. by nearly 10 percent, to $2.93 trillion, while creating stable access to good care for all U.S. residents.
And the press release that was issued along with the analysis.
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BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2009—The Last Person Who Should Be Opening His Mouth:
Whatever differences we as Democrats have regarding President Obama's policy choices in Afghanistan, the one thing we can all agree on is that we're sick of hearing arsonists hanging around the fire they started telling us the best way put it out. Certain media, however, eagerly add kerosene to the flames by endlessly quoting them.
Thus, today, we've got torturer-in chief Richard Bruce Cheney—who lied us into war and further enriched himself and his wealthy cronies in the process—explaining to Politico how Obama has botched his decision because he actually spent time thinking about it. Therefore, the President is projecting "weakness."
Weakness is added to weakness, Cheney says, by trying some Gitmo prisoners in New York in civilian courts. Uh-huh. By hauling self-described holy warriors into American criminal courts to be tried with thieves and murderers means the terrorists have already won.
It takes no special effort or reading between the lines to see the main theme behind Cheney's remarks: Obama is giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
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