MEDICARE FOR ALL
With the
2020 race heating up, it’s important to note that the Democrats’ biggest fiscal
plank, now embraced by ALL remaining candidates, is “Medicare for all”. Yes…..the
single payer healthcare system.
Interestingly,
though ALL Democrat candidates are on board, not one of them has dared explained
the cost, other than vaguely tying it to another of their fiscal planks, “soak
the rich”.
So, always
being a ‘happy to help’ kind of guy, *I* will take a look at the numbers. Let’s
see, based on today’s actual budget, what “Medicare for all” will cost American
tax payers.
First, some
relevant numbers and their sources:
Medicare:
$582 billion (CBO, 2018 Federal Budget)
Medicaid:
$389 billion (CBO, 2018 Federal Budget)
C.H.I.P.:
$12 billion (CBO, 2018 Federal Budget)
Total
revenues: $3.3 trillion (CBO, 2018 Federal Budget)
Number of
Medicare recipients: 44 million (AARP)
Number of
Medicaid recipients: 64 million (Medicaid.gov)
Number of
CHIP recipients: 6 million (Medicare.gov)
Population
of the United States, 2018: 327.2 million (US Census)
Let’s
crunch some numbers….
Based on the
2018 budget, the cost, per recipient, of healthcare, was $8,623.00 (rounded to
nearest dollar).
Adjusted to
the total population (excluding illegals, of course), the total cost of
healthcare would be $2.82 trillion.
In
other words:
with a Federal revenue of $3.3 trillion (2018), healthcare, alone, would
comprise 85% of the entire budget.
