The eye-popping cost of Medicare for All

[Blue_true]

101. What are you missing? Lots.

First off on infrastructure. Insurance companies have an enormous amount of infrastructure in place to support private insured people. If those people went over to a government run payer, the government would need to either:

Vastly expand government infrastructure such as the VA or Medicare to absorb something like 200 plus million Americans.

Or

Buy the insurance company infrastructure at market prices, or take it by fiat. Either one spells big trouble.

The best option is to fill coverage gaps until we have moved everyone over to one payer. The gradual buildout allows people that are privately insured stay that way until it becomes obvious to them that joining a one payer plan is less expensive for them.

I don't dispute your last point. I do dispute the best way to accomplish that end. In my view, closing the gaps in the ACA gets to that end result faster and for less money sunk in.