Current US healthcare system spends $3.5 trillion. Bernie's plans- 3 trilion.
Breakdown: To fund Medicare for all researchers calculate the government would have to bring in an additional 773 billion in relation to current levels. 10% could come from payroll tax- $436B. Employers currently pay around 12% contribution to healthcare. $375B from 5% household income tax.
In their breakdown of the numbers, researchers applied the existing Medicare fee structure across the entire health-care system and found it would save about $100 billion annually. Keep in mind that this basically represents less money going to doctors and hospitals, a major sticking point for medical groups that oppose Medicare-for-all. But those declines would be more than offset by several hundred billions in savings from reduced administrative and billing costs, Galvani and her colleagues estimate. The lack of patient billing under a Medicare-for-all system would also eliminate the roughly $35 billion a year that hospitals.
The authors estimate an additional $219 billion in savings from reduced “administrative overhead” that the current decentralized system creates, including “the elimination of redundant corporate functions and the truncation of the top-heavy salary architecture of health insurance corporations.” For instance, the plan would replace dozens of health insurance executives, many of whom make well over $20 million a year, with one administrator paid the same salary as the current Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Finally, letting the national Medicare system negotiate pharmaceutical prices would save about $180 billion, according to the analysis.
Breakdown: To fund Medicare for all researchers calculate the government would have to bring in an additional 773 billion in relation to current levels. 10% could come from payroll tax- $436B. Employers currently pay around 12% contribution to healthcare. $375B from 5% household income tax.
In their breakdown of the numbers, researchers applied the existing Medicare fee structure across the entire health-care system and found it would save about $100 billion annually. Keep in mind that this basically represents less money going to doctors and hospitals, a major sticking point for medical groups that oppose Medicare-for-all. But those declines would be more than offset by several hundred billions in savings from reduced administrative and billing costs, Galvani and her colleagues estimate. The lack of patient billing under a Medicare-for-all system would also eliminate the roughly $35 billion a year that hospitals.
The authors estimate an additional $219 billion in savings from reduced “administrative overhead” that the current decentralized system creates, including “the elimination of redundant corporate functions and the truncation of the top-heavy salary architecture of health insurance corporations.” For instance, the plan would replace dozens of health insurance executives, many of whom make well over $20 million a year, with one administrator paid the same salary as the current Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Finally, letting the national Medicare system negotiate pharmaceutical prices would save about $180 billion, according to the analysis.