Economist: Warren's Medicare for All will NOT raise taxes on the middle class.

[pnwmom]

Unlike some other Medicare for all plan.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/13/perspectives/elizabeth-warren-medicare-for-all-taxes-middle-class/index.html?fbclid=IwAR3_rsA8W9p2LUks3EkVW6wNxJNrXURXts0HWC_ijiXs1MuILw8IznezPUA

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of Medicare for All. That's why I'm impressed that Senator Elizabeth Warren's campaign reached out to me to independently review her proposed financing plan for the program. Her numbers add up and her plan fully finances the program without imposing any new taxes on middle-class families.

The most important source of revenue for Warren's Medicare for All plan is simply to have businesses pay their employees' health insurance premiums to Medicare instead of private insurance companies. Over time, businesses would be required to pay slightly less to Medicare for health insurance than they would otherwise have paid to private insurers. New small businesses with fewer than 50 employees would not be required to make these payments.

There has been some handwringing that this would be regressive. That is, lower-paid workers would suffer, since businesses would pay more for lower-paid workers' health insurance as a percent of their pay than for higher-paid workers. But companies' current premiums generally vary by the type of insurance plan and family size, and not by employee income. Warren's Medicare for All plan effectively preserves this. And by replacing trillions of dollars in individual spending on health care with new taxes on large corporations and the rich, her plan overall is clearly progressive.

Warren's Medicare for All plan is also paid for in part by the taxes generated from the increase in take-home pay that workers will enjoy as they no longer pay toward private health insurance. The typical worker shells out several thousand dollars a year, untaxed, to insure their family. Under Medicare for All, that worker would receive that money as wages, which would be subject under existing law to income and payroll taxes.

SNIP

[George II]

1. Sanders' plan will raise taxes on everyone making $29,000 or more...that's people getting only....

....about $13.90 per hour.

That kills the ol' "$15/hour" meme, amirite?

[HarlanPepper]

5. That'll go over like a lead balloon in a general election.

People won’t give a shit about anything beyond the “raise taxes” part. They will run for the hills.

[TexasBushwhacker]

16. I would imagine only income over $29K would be subject ro the tax

but there's a good chance someone making $29K isn't getting insurance from their employer, yet they're making too much to be covered by Medicaid. The person making $29K would pay nothing and their employer would pay about $180 a month. That's a bargain.

[Hoyt]

2. It also says the merits of the tax increases are debatable AND

“Of course, Warren's Medicare for All plan isn't the only way to provide health insurance to all Americans, rein in growing health care costs and improve health care outcomes. A more tractable approach in my view is to allow those who like their private health insurance to keep it and to build on Obamacare by giving everyone else an option to get Medicare.

[pnwmom]

6. But that's how she is starting -- with a public option. If that works out well, then private

insurance would slowly die a natural death, because people and businesses would choose to get on this good Medicare option. No reason to kill private insurance all at once.

[Hoyt]

14. Truthfully, she's running on MFA with a Public Option first and 3 years later MFA. That's MFA.

I wish she'd said, we're going to implement a Public Option and when everything is working and people like it, we'll look at going full-blown MFA.

[SunSeeker]

3. Yeah. But she's a woman, so...

[uponit7771]

12. +1, This is so apparent today after Sanders released his economic plan. He literally say 20 million

... new jobs will be created ... omfg

I feel so bad for Warren now, her numbers were plausible were as Sanders is digging in toilets, throwing whatever he finds on paper and his minions will eat it like its a popeye chicken sandwich.

[SunSeeker]

15. Yes, it's infuriating.

[moniss]

4. Thank you

for putting up a post that actually speaks about some of the aspects of a candidate's policy proposals that simply discusses some of the aspects without all kinds of vitriol and aspersions attached to it. I wish more of the DU was this way rather than people seeming to rush breathlessly to post the latest "did you hear what so-and-so said" or "we're doomed unless we choose someone who won't rock the boat of the uninformed/uninvolved etc." The sadness is that your post will probably not draw as much response as the "gossip" type of posts. I remember the old DU days when topics and policies were discussed in ways more informative than now. Thanks again for showing it can still be done. By the way to whoever left me a Valentine heart I say thank you for being so nice. I'm sorry I didn't see it until now because I didn't check my mail. Peace.

[PatrickforO]

7. Good for you for posting this.

I don't think there's any doubt we need some substantial tax reform.

Speaking as a lifelong consumer of healthcare benefits that allow fewer treatment options for lots more money each year, there's got to be a better way.

The reason I like M4A is because they don't have to wheel you through the accounting department first to make sure you can pay before you get treatment. Because that's how it is for most Americans.

A couple years ago, my wife, whom I love dearly, went to urgent care with excruciating abdominal pain. She was there for about six hours, and finally a doctor said she needed surgery to have her gallbladder out. That's three large right there. Out of pocket.

So, it's New Year's Eve. Seriously. The way my HMO does surgery is they have a couple teams. They start cutting at about 7:30am and they don't stop until they are done with all the patients. Well, my wife kept getting sloughed to the back of the line because it wasn't 'life threatening,' and finally they wheeled her into the OR last at around 9pm.

I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. Hours went by. She was on the table for about 3.5 hours. Her liver was wrapped around the gall bladder, you see, so the surgical team, who had been going for about 13, 14 hours already, had a very delicate operation to end their day.

And you know what? Nobody said SHIT to me. I'm fucking beside myself with worry and none of those fucks were thoughtful enough to at least say, "Hey, she's still in surgery. Let me check up and see how it's going." Nobody. Our medical community has the bedside manner of Darth Vader pretty much. Absolutely NO compassion for families or people waiting, beside themselves with worry.

Later a nurse was overheard by both of us making a disparaging comment about my wife.

Well, they released her the next day even though there was a blood clot scare, because it's a fucking HMO, right? So we take her home, and the next day her abdomen swells up. I mean, it gets HARD, like wood. I'm pretty worried, and of course it's after hours. So we head to the ER. Again, not at the hospital right down the street, but the one our HMO has us use, across town.

I take her in, and we wait. Finally this doctor comes in and says, "Oh, that's normal. Didn't they tell you?"

No, they fucking did not tell us.

And then you know what happened next? This arrogant guy comes into the ER space with a laptop on a rolling cart and asks me how I want to 'handle' the copay. I wanted to strangle the SOB. An hour before, my wife and I were both worried her life was in peril, and this asshole wants me to produce a goddamn credit card???

No, healthcare is a BIG DEAL for me. It always will be. And you know what? I'm pretty sick of people telling me I can't have decent healthcare because some greedy fucking insurance lobby lines up millions of bucks against doing the right thing, the moral thing.

So that's my story. And that's why I am a healthcare voter, and why I support M4A, and why no one will convince me that ACA is better, more practical, easier for the greed-heads on Wall Street to get behind. They have been fighting THAT since it was passed in '09, and the Republicans have done NOTHING but sabotage it. Over and over and over. Line by line. Piece by piece. Cut here. Cut there. Keep our states from expanding Medicaid. Hell yeah, let people die. We're all only useless eaters, after all.

Well.................sorry for the rant. But I get pretty excited about healthcare.

[BadgerMom]

8. K and R

[cerebrate2006]

9. She needs a big win in sc debate

She is on fire right now but she’s getting drowned out (rightly so) by the Bernie mo. She needs to dominate the next debate like she did the last one - if she does, the sky’s the limit. If she doesn’t, Bernie wins it all. I think we’re good either way - just think Warren would do better on GE.

[Recursion]

10. That's a huge tax hit on businesses that don't provide insurance

Also I don't buy for a second that businesses will let workers keep that money that's currently going to insurance.

[uponit7771]

11. Sanders To America: " here ... eat this crap plan of mine and vote for me"

[dansolo]

13. Bullshit

Higher taxes being offset by lower premiums is not the same as taxes not being raised. It is this kind of misleading rhetoric that makes me not trust any of the claims about M4A. And that is assuming she gets all of her other taxes enacted (she won't) and that her plan won't cost more than she is claiming (it will, by a lot). If they want to claim that worker's take-home pay will go up, then why don't they just say that? They hsve to be cagey about tax increases because they can't sell it otherwise.