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May. 17, 2019

Side Effects of Medicare-for-All [UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE ?]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House Budget Committee will hold a hearing next week on a recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report detailing the risks of imposing a one-size-fits-all, government-run health care system, as Democrats’ multi-trillion-dollar Medicare-for-All proposal would do.   
 
While the CBO report did not identify a price tag, as other independent analyses have done, it did warn that one-size-fits-all health care proposals could have serious side effects. For example, as news outlets have reported, Medicare-for-All is expected to:
  • “‘Substantially’ increase government health care spending.” – Politico Pro
  • “Overtax hospitals and clinicians while imposing hefty new costs.” – Modern Healthcare 
  • “Entail new taxes, including income taxes, payroll taxes, or consumption taxes.” – Associated Press 
  • “Produce … higher government spending and taxes — and potentially longer waits for some treatments and technologies.” – Washington Post 
  • “Largely replace private and employer insurance coverage with a single government program for everyone.” – Wall Street Journal
As the side effects become clearer, editorial boards are sounding alarm bells:
  • “What stands out is the utter impracticality of getting from where things stand today to what [Democrats propose].” – USA Today
  • “Honest private estimates suggest [paying for Medicare-for-All] would take at least a doubling of individual and corporate taxes … cutting payments to doctors and restricting care.” – Wall Street Journal
  • “It’s good to follow the money trail of ‘Medicare for all,’ … because it leads us to the true cost, which is the loss of freedom.”  – Washington Examiner
  • “It could also discourage talented people from entering the medical profession and result in long wait times for care.” – Washington Post
  • “There are a couple of major problems … The first problem is money.” – Chicago Tribune

It’s no wonder the majority of Americans oppose Democrats’ health care plan once they learn it will lead to paying more to wait longer for worse care.
 
To learn about some of the risks CBO outlines in its report, click HERE.
 
To learn more about the Democrats’ one-size-fits-all health care plan, click HERE.
 
To learn about Democrats’ plan (or lack thereof) to pay for their government takeover of health care, click HERE.

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Questions? Call 202-226-7270 or email Budget.Republicans@mail.house.gov

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