What’s Medicare for All and How Is It Operating?
Medicare Under Bernie Sanders (I-VA): S. 1129
Bernie Sanders was the first to assign the moniker of Medicare for all to his healthcare reform plan. He believes healthcare should be a human right. Providing universal coverage in the U.S. is the right way to guarantee coverage for all.
The bill sets up a comprehensive healthcare policy that the Department of Health and Human Services will oversee.
Bernie’s single-payer proposal would benefit all United States citizens, and individuals would apply upon birth or citizenship for compulsory enrollment.
How much would Medicare for all cost?
The program is expected to cost the United States approximately 3.5 trillion dollars, reflecting a 2 percent rise in healthcare spending today. However, the coverage’s origins will transfer to the federal government from private insurance providers.
An Employer-Paid Premium and Wider Self-Employment Levy
We will impose an income-based premium charged by workers of 7.5 percent. It will exclude the first $2 million in payroll to protect small businesses. Sanders’ proposal will make business owners declare more of their company’s revenue as wages to pay more self-employment taxes.
A Fee Charged for All Workers Earning More Than $29,000
The legislation will generate a 4 percent income-based premium charged by workers. The first $29,000 in taxes for a family of four will be exempt.
Eliminate Spending on Health Taxes for Companies
Since Bernie’s Medicare for everyone will bank employer-based health benefits, it would also eliminate workplace deductions for the health insurance they already have. This leaves more surplus dollars taxed to pay for Medicare for all by the federal government.
A Federal Income Tax, More Egalitarian
One plan for those earning more than $10 million is to introduce a marginal tax rate of up to 70 percent. Paid and unearned income (such as capital gains and dividends) will be taxed at the same rates, and tax deductions available for filers in the highest tax bracket will be restricted.
A More Progressive Tax on Real Estate
This choice would boost the top inheritance tax rate, including a 77 percent death tax rate for those with more than $1 billion, which would effectively prohibit the richest families from passing on any of their money to their heirs.
A Levy on Wealth
Bernie’s proposal would establish an extra wealth tax on persons in the top 0.1 percent of earnings and the more progressive income tax.
Medicare Under Elizabeth Warren(D-MA)
The Medicare for All initiative of Elizabeth Warren would go one better than Bernie’s proposal in that it would provide absolutely everyone with healthcare, including illegal immigrants.
Warren argues that her funding scheme would not lift any middle-income class taxes, but Bernie disagrees.
Medicare Under Kamala Harris (D-CA)
In a few main aspects, as envisaged by Kamala Harris, Medicare-for-All varies from the other proposals. While her plan would establish a federal government-run healthcare system, it would allow private insurers to compete.
Medicare Under Pramila Jayapal (D-WA)
Representative Pramila Jayapal, called the most ambitious Medicare for All initiative, proposes a rapid transition to universal healthcare within just two years. Her policy will remove private health insurance, including Bernie’s.
This is much more compassionate in that it will finance long-term care and nursing facilities. It will also fund abortion, much like Bernie’s newest iteration of his scheme.
Bottom Line
Conclusively, while healthcare reform in America is a vital subject and a national debate that we certainly should have, we should not use the word Medicare in any of the measures mentioned here. It is a misnomer that misleads the public into believing that our top-rated Medicare program will encourage access to everybody.
It’s also necessary to note that these are only four of Congress’s nearly a dozen Medicare reform plans. Whether one of them would eventually make it into legislation is anybody’s guess. But these proposals will surely be a much-discussed subject as we approach the 2020 elections. Stay tuned, and be sure that the details are understood.
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