Single-Payer Medicare for All will increase taxes but you should want that (VIDEO)

[egbertowillies]

I got a call from a Politics Done Right with Egberto Willies listener who said he heard that Single-Payer Medicare for All would increase the taxes of most people and it would increase government expenditures. I told him that in fact, it would raise taxes for most but that is not the whole story. To be clear, every individual will be better off for precise reasons.

I further explain in detail at the following blog post:
https://egbertowillies.com/2018/09/14/single-payer-medicare-for-all-taxes/

[guillaumeb]

1. Higher taxes would be offset by lower total heathcare costs.

That is why the US spends twice as much per patient in total costs as does Canada for worse coverage.

[BigmanPigman]

2. The money has to come from somewhere.

The countries that have socialized medicine and free college and free senior care as well as parental leave for a year for new parents, etc all have to pay higher taxes than we do. But if you do the math and add up real costs over a life time socialized countries' citizens end up paying less than US citizens. Tons of our taxes go to the military which a lot of the socialized countries don't invest that much into it. Maybe if tax cuts didn't go to the 1%, if there haven't been stagnant wages for 30 years, and if the average CEO didn't earn over 300 times what their average employee earns, then there would be more money avail for the govt to use for socialized programs. Americans who are older have been conned into believing "socialized" anything is bad..."it must be bad since the Communists are socialists, blah, blah, blah.".

[roamer65]

3. Healthcare premiums are already a tax.

They cost of them are already deducted from people’s paychecks. That is by definition a tax or a levy.

I would rather that levy go to a single payor not for profit system, than to for profit greedy insurance companies.