I don’t have any statistics to offer. What I have is my experience as a member of a union (the Newspaper Guild) who had employer-provided health insurance as a benefit back before I retired and three years after that qualified for Medicare.
Once upon a time, my medical, dental and vision insurance was pretty awesome. Co-pays were very reasonable and my employer paid my premium. I had a $50 deductible per year. It was good. My prescriptions cost me $3 to $20 per refill (90 days).
But as time went by, the insurance deteriorated and the cost to me skyrocketed. First there was the union contract where the only way we could get to a settlement was to accept sharing the premium cost of our insurance. The deduction from my paycheck started small, but by the time I retired, it was nearly 20% of my paycheck. The co-pays went up. And worst of all, the deductible went from $50 to $2,000.
Then, the department I worked in was eliminated and I was pretty much forced to retire. I was 62 years old, so I wasn’t eligible for Medicare yet. My first alternative was COBRA, a program that allowed me to buy into my former employer’s plan — with me paying the full premium. That was devastating. My monthly premium was my single largest expense. It was more than my mortgage. I struggled to keep my insurance paid for.
Then, when my COBRA ran out, I got into Obamacare, buying a policy through Healthcare.gov. That was an improvement, but not much of an improvement. The premium was less (I saved about $150 a month), but still about the same size as my mortgage. And the deductible was $1,600. I was still struggling to afford it. I got a bit of a subsidy, but because my income is variable (I support myself from a rental house business) I never knew just how much it was going to be until tax time.
Finally, three years ago, I qualified for Medicare. That was a weight lifted from my shoulders.
I opted for a Medicare supplement policy (rather than an advantage policy). My monthly insurance cost went from over $600 to about $250. No subsidy needed. It’s a fixed monthly cost that I no longer worry about meeting. I have no deductibles. I have mostly small co-pays for my prescriptions.
In short, I love Medicare.
Now, I’m hearing Joe Biden and a couple of the “other guy” candidates (as opposed to the front runners) saying we can’t have Medicare For All because it would “ban” the employer provided policies that union members negotiated for and would want to keep.
I can’t speak for every union member in America. Every union contract is different. But those really good policies we had 20 years ago are few and far between these days. Most employer-provided insurance today includes big deductibles and substantial cost sharing. I’m single. My married colleagues had a much larger deduction on their paychecks.
If Medicare For All had been proposed while I was still working I would have been on it like white on rice. My paycheck would have gone up. I would have had better coverage with smaller co-pays and deductibles.
So, let’s not assume that union members would hate Medicare For All. That’s not a foregone conclusion. I’m sure there are some people out that who would oppose it. But I’m willing to predict that a lot of them would embrace it — enthusiastically.
We need a better explanation of what it would be than “higher taxes and no choice.” We need to reassure current Medicare recipients that Medicare For All does not mean taking it away from seniors to give to someone else. (There was an infuriating GOP ad that ran to that effect in my market during the 2018 campaign season.)
Single payer health care is the best, most cost effective way to get to universal coverage.