A core Bernie Sanders proposal is a huge change to both private and public healthcare in the US through his proposal “Medicare for All.” It is already a big topic in the Democratic Party primary and it will likely be an even bigger issue if Bernie goes into the general election.
But there are many questions about the numbers in his proposal. Are the taxes proposed enough to pay for it? Would Medicare for All reduce what the country spends on healthcare? Would quality suffer? Would hospitals be forced to close? Would jobs be lost? etc..
Democratic voters now, and the country during the general electio need a highly credible study on what the impact of Sen Sanders, Medicare-for-All would be.
Their have been various economists who tried to study his plan in their spare time. But those who have done these studies don’t have much of a track record in forecasting the impact of major new government programs or major changes to programs.
So far politicians and the press have been saying study X on Bernie Sander’s Medicare for All is a good or bad study based upon whether or not the study fitted what the reader was hoping it would say. That is not a standard any voter should be told to use.
The organization with the most credibility and most extensive history in forecasting the impact of major government policy changes is the Congressional Budget Office — widely called the CBO see www.cbo.gov to learn more. The CBO is a Federal economics group funded by the federal government. They are generally viewed as non-partisan as much as anything is considered non-partisan in the Federal government.
Regarding how we can get a CBO report, is the fact that Bernie Sanders is Senator Sanders, a member of Congress, he can request that the CBO study and reports on his proposal at no cost to Bernie or his campaign with the funding coming from the Federal government — without getting secret funding from Wall Street, drug companies, insurance companies, etc..
Bernie Sanders should formally request a CBO study, if he has not done so already. There is a downside to doing this however, the CBO may issue a report that with highlight problems X, Y and Z. But by doing this now, Bernie can make modifications to his proposal and then require CBO to issue a new report. When asking for a CBO report, Bernie can even specify questions for the CBO to answer in their report, so he can highlight what he thinks are most important for voters to know.
There are several very big questions about his proposal, that both his opponents and even his supporters should be asking:
- How much will total spending on US Healthcare (both through government and the private sector ) change from Medicare -for -All compared to current forecasts?
- Will the proposed taxes be sufficient to pay for Medicare for All?
- Looking at different household incomes and different company sizes, who pays less and who pays more when comparing healthcare spending less Medicare for All taxes?
- What would be the impact on jobs in healthcare industries and their suppliers? Both in total employment and in pay?
- What would be the impact on total US employment and employee compensation?
- What would be the impact on US economic growth? and median Per Capita Income?
- What would be the impact on lower skilled employee employment and pay?