Former Obama campaign staffer questions feasibility of Democrats' 'Medicare-for-all' plan
The Hill columnist Kristin Tate and former Obama regional field director Robin Biro on how White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump criticized Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal and how House Democrats unveiled a broad “Medicare-for-all” bill.
As more Democrats lean towards the far-left on health care, a group of over a hundred House Democratic lawmakers are introducing a “Medicare-for-all” bill that goes further than Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ similar proposal.
And it doesn’t include a price tag. It bares the question; Are legislators in full electioneering mode?
“Bernie Sanders’ ‘Medicare-for-all’ proposal will cost at least $32 trillion in the next 10 years. The Democrats’ version of the proposal would cost more than that because it also covers long-term care,” The Hill columnist Kristin Tate said during an interview with FOX Business’ Melissa Francis Wednesday. “No one has any idea how they would pay for this.”
Francis questioned the feasibility of such massive free Medicare plan, saying, “People take out three times as much as they pay in, so if you add more people, how do you do that?”
Former Obama regional field director Robin Biro agreed that the numbers don’t seem to add up, saying, “I’ve had my concerns about this. Of course we have that report by the Mercatus Center that showed that we would save, something like $2 trillion over the course of ten years.”
The new “Medicare-for-all” bill would establish single-payer, government-run healthcare system for all Americans. Also, enrollees would pay no premiums, co-pays or deductible.
“Medicare is already subject to excess bureaucracy, over-spending and fraud. If you add 250 million people to the program, that’s a recipe for disaster,” Tate said on “After The Bell.”
Biro said the “Medicare-for-all” program sounds great in theory, but the unknown factors leaves to more questions than answers. It’s a big spending program without a price tag, “Unless people are working for free, I don’t know how that works,” Francis added.
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Democratic 2020 presidential hopefuls such as Sanders, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard, California Senator Kamala Harris and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren have publicly supported the bill. So far, 46 percent of House Democrats have signed onto the single-payer “Medicare-for-all” bill, declining from 62 percent who said they would back the bill last year, according to Roll Call.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has not endorsed the health-care plan.