Politifact: Out of pocket cost of the current health system: $11 trillion over 10 years

[crazytown]

If we make no changes over the next 10 years, Americans will reach into their pockets and pay out about $11 trillion on insurance premiums, copays, deductibles and uncovered medical expenses Elizabeth Warren

POLITIFACT: TRUE

Warren says out-of-pocket health spending will total $11 trillion in 10 years. We checked the math

(snip) We contacted the Warren campaign, which redirected us to a report from the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank, as well as to federal estimates of household out-of-pocket expenses and premium costs over the next decade.

The Urban report doesn’t include the $11 trillion figure. But economist Linda Blumberg, who authored the paper, told us the statistic is "perfectly consistent" with the analysis.

If anything, she said, the number is a lowball figure. When Blumberg and her team crunched the numbers, they found that, under the existing health care system, Americans can expect to pay $11.7 trillion between out-of-pocket costs – the copays, deductibles and uncovered medical expenses – and premiums over the next decade. That calculation comes from Urban’s model for projecting what individual households might expect to spend, factoring in inflation, on these types of health costs.

(snip) Cynthia Cox, a vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation and expert on the Affordable Care Act, pointed to what a typical American family currently spends on health care: about $5,000 per year, when you look at out-of-pocket costs and premiums combined. Extrapolating from there, she said, Warren’s claim seems reasonable. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)

"Over the course of 10 years, when you add it up — that sounds about right," Cox said. "The reality is, people do spend a lot on health care out of their pockets, and there’s a lot spent on their behalf by employers or taxpayer-funded programs that they never see."

Under Warren’s health care plan, Americans would pay nothing directly out-of-pocket — no premiums, copays or deductibles — for health care. So that $11 trillion would disappear from the cost side of the ledger.

https://www.politifact.com/health-check/statements/2019/nov/12/elizabeth-warren/warren-says-out-pocket-health-spending-will-total-/

[BeckyDem]

1. Physicians for a National Health Program By Don McCanne, M.D.

As promised, Elizabeth Warren is proposing dramatic transitional steps in improving our health care financing system, ending in the third year with a full transformation into a bona fide single-payer improved Medicare for All program. The sketchy details of the transformation are spelled out in her article, but much more important is that the end goal of a single payer model of Medicare for All is not compromised. It really can be achieved.

PNHP does not endorse any political candidate for public office.

Stay informed! Visit www.pnhp.org/qotd to sign up for daily email updates.

https://pnhp.org/news/elizabeth-warrens-proposed-transition-to-medicare-for-all/