I wanted to take note of this Wall Street Journal op-ed by Joel Zinberg. Here’s the opening passage:
Sen. Bernie Sanders first introduced his Medicare for All legislation in 2017. Despite multiple reintroductions, the proposal has never received a floor vote in either congressional chamber. Medicare for All has become a rallying cry for progressives this election season, and recent polling suggests public support has surged. Voters should be careful what they wish for.
Two-thirds of Americans favor Medicare for All, according to a new KFF poll—a substantial increase from 2020, when roughly half of respondents were in favor. But most Americans don’t understand the proposal or its likely effects. Medicare for All would eliminate competition and choice in medical care, limit access, and inevitably lead to tax increases.
but the passage I found most telling was this:
When respondents in the KFF poll were told the effects of Medicare for All, support plunged. Only 52% were in favor when told that private insurance would be eliminated, 38% when learning Medicare for All could threaten the current Medicare program, 35% once they considered that Medicare for All could require most Americans to pay higher taxes, and 24% after learning it could lead to delays for medical tests and treatments.
It has been said that Sanders’s bill isn’t a bill that has been enacted by Congress and that’s true enough. My question is what is an incoming Democratic Congress likely to do? Given that 84% of Democrats support “Medicare for All” I think it’s a measure very likely to be enacted by the hypothetical incoming Democratic Congress even though the actual bill might have considerably less support.
IMO the likely outcome of such a single-payer system in the United States is likely to be considerably worse than Dr. Zinberg suggests. If public payment rates make private practice sufficiently attractive, some physicians could withdraw, serve smaller affluent patient panels, and reduce the capacity available to everyone relying on the public program. I think that unless the restrictions on practicing medicine outside the national systems are considerably more strict than the bill presently establishes the actual outcome will be concierge healthcare for the well-to-do, unfettered by the price restrictions of “Medicare for All”, and less healthcare for the balance of the population.
