Medicare for All Could Save the US $2 Trillion

A recent study said that single payer Medicare for everybody would cost the government A LOT of money. But it would also $2 TRILLION less than the way we do things now.
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John Green -- Executive Producer
Stan Muller -- Director, Producer
Aaron Carroll -- Writer
Mark Olsen – Graphics
Meredith Danko – Social Media

And the housekeeping:

[WernerEdgar]

Ah facts... the enemy of ignorance. Thanks Aaron!

[eyesofnova]

Only in America where the dollar is worth more than a human life. Mind blown...

[arnoldtrogman]

the lower reimbursement rates will be offset by the low cost of billing which is now exorbitant for doctors and hospitals. no need for cumbersome billing of 500 different insurance companies.. when there's a single-payer

[blackice]

A lot of people seem to forget that even if medicare for all raises taxes considerably, you wouldn’t have to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars per year on private insurance. Unless you get your healthcare for free already, you will most likely save money with this type of plan.

[chasebryant]

Why doesn’t the question of “How are you going to pay for that war” never comes up or even discussed? 20 years at war and still no end in sight but we have plenty of money to toss around for it but bitch when it comes to healing our own people. What in the hell has this country turned into!?

[dg__]

Government funded healthcare is not the answer and never will be.

[NotHPotter]

If doctors were paid less but a Medicare for all system were able to address their malpractice insurance premiums, the doctors would probably get on board.

[vonigner]

America, your government spends more money per capita for your healthcare system AND as individuals you spend more out of pocket cost than ANYONE ELSE IN THE OCDE.
/wave from France.
Have the state work as a big ass insurance and negotiate with practitioners. As your insurances do. But like, ONE BIG insurance with 100% of the population

[CaptainSteen]

it's math. Americans don't like to do the math. Here I'll do it for you
all. Right now my premium is $2244 a year. If Medicare for all is passed
it would a 4% tax on my 40k income coming to $1600 and I wouldn't pay
for anything else like prescriptions, co-pays etc. So a lot less? When
you take away the profiteering from private insurance and big pharma.
All our costs will go down

[hardcandy]

We have Doctor from all around the world that would do the service for a 1/3 of the American greedy Doctors that would mean free Health care for all born Americans, other poor country provide free health care for their people, we are the riches in the world and can't take care of our own, not if Doctors are making salary of Millions and over .

[QwertyQwerty-lwoo]

This was misleading as the study's cost reduction worked on Bernie's assumptions and the study's author said that these assumptions were unreasonable and a more realistic plan would be more expensive

[FillingTheGap]

I pay about $5, 200 a year for heath insurance since the company I work for doesn't provide it. That doesn't include co-pay and other fees when seeking care. I'd rather pay more in taxes as long as my overall spending is much lower for heath coverage. Total bullshit in the USA when it comes to healthcare. The worst part is, this money goes to waste each year since I hardly use it except for some prescriptions.

[NonDelusional]

We the People spend it. The rich sociopaths in control of society don’t spend it.

[karrithebestlira]

When they open Medicare up for everyone I'm in! It's got to be better than my insurance now. I pay my premium every month(250) and since my deductible is 12000 I am also paying for all my healthcare out of pocket. It totally sucks.

[Observe]

Why didn’t this video point out that the same Mercatus study indicated that the $2T savings was a generous projection of one outcome? Another outcome it found was that costs could actually increase by $3T, instead of savings $2.

[ethan-loves]

You are such an engaging host, Aaron. Thank you!

[sas]

I live in the uk now where we have a national health service for over 70 years providing healthcare for all. It is hugely expensive accounting for around 20-25% of our total tax revenues and the percentage has been increasing steadily every year. We are now having to privatise more and more parts of it so that we can still afford it. The worst part is because I'm employed I not only contribute via taxes, I then have to pay extra charges and fees for what is supposed to be free healthcare, only those who are unemployed and on welfare get completely free healthcare in the uk. Frankly the standard of care has been reducing steadly whilst the cost is rising because the system can't support the size of our population and so you get what you pay for. Without a doubt the single biggest problem is the waiting lists, people are waiting sometimes years to have surgery and get the care they need because its publicly funded by the government and there isnt enough money to go around. I have private healthcare insurance and the standard of care is far superior, nearly everyone in the uk who can afford private healthcare has it because it's better and you dont have any waiting lists. I guess we'll see how americans like this approach once they realise they pay a lot into something and its other people who get the benefit rather than yourself and the standard of care is pretty poor in many ways.

[Stellina]

I do not understand why you think that we have ideal care now when doctors have high reimbursement rates. The system sucks so bad, it would be very hard for M4A to be worse. Even if reimbursement rates lower, there would be more people actually seeing doctors (do you know how many people are completely uninsured today??) so I am very sure the doctors would come out OK. They always do, it's the patients that get screwed every which way.

[AntiCitizenX]

Do you have any videos on why health care costs are so unreasonably high in the first place? M4A does not lower costs at the end of the day. It just shrouds the burden into higher taxes. Rather than just arbitrarily subsidize the resource, why not address the market failures that cause the problems in the first place?

[opinionatedape]

What about direct primary care packaged with catastrophic health insurance saving over 50% of health costs? Comparing a market plan we can't afford to a government plan we can't afford is not really helpful.