“Democrats are laying the groundwork to make a push for “Medicare for all” legislation if they win back the House in November,” The Hill reports.
“More than 60 House Democrats launched a Medicare for All Congressional Caucus this month, a sign of the popularity surrounding the concept of a government-run health insurance system for everyone that’s supported by liberal firebrands like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.”
Earlier this week, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University put out a study demonstrating that such a scheme would cost the federal government $32 trillion dollars.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wi.) called the plan “just absurd” in a tweet, noting that “[e]ven doubling all federal individual and corporate income taxes wouldn’t cover this cost.”
$32.6 trillion dollars. That’s how much Washington Democrats’ single-payer healthcare proposal would cost over 10 years. Even doubling all federal individual and corporate income taxes wouldn’t cover this cost. It is just absurd. https://t.co/8jijG73wEw
— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) July 30, 2018
“If the measure did make it through the House, it would have more than a dozen supporters in the Senate, where Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) Medicare for all bill has 16 co-sponsors, including several potential Democratic presidential candidates,” the report adds.
Single-payer healthcare failed to be enacted in Vermont earlier in the 2010s because it was found to be far too costly. Nevertheless, Democrats running for Senate and House seats alike (and perhaps in 2020 as well?) are embracing single-payer healthcare in increasing numbers.
