Elizabeth Warren’s “Medicare-For-All” plan has been a long time coming. As she released it on Friday, new polling showed her on top in Iowa. But there will be many questions from her challengers, and the voters. Number one is how’s it going to be paid for? And, is it realistic? Her headline is:
My plan won’t raise taxes one penny on middle-class families. In fact, we’ll return about $11 TRILLION to the American people. That’s bigger than the biggest tax cut in our history.
She also says her plans “gives everyone in America full coverage, with the freedom to see any doctor, with no premiums, copays, and deductibles—so getting sick doesn’t mean you go broke. No restrictions, no surprises, no more bills.”
But how would this work? She says “we’re going to rein in the waste, inefficiency, and corporate profiteering by insurance and drug companies. And we’ll bring down out-of-control costs.” All that is easier said than done. It would require a lot of money. To cover the cost, the Massachusetts Senator says:
We start by taking the money that employers are currently paying in the form of premiums to private insurance companies and have them pay it to Medicare instead.
We cover the remaining $11 trillion largely with taxes on big corporations, Wall Street, and the top 1%—and enforcing the tax laws we have now.
There are understandably a lot of skeptics and a lot of hurdles this plan would have to overcome.
In the Los Angeles Times, Evan Halper says:
Most every element of her plan — from expanding the IRS to putting cost controls on healthcare to vastly expanding taxes on the rich — would be almost certain to face stiff resistance in Congress. The plan would be a historic political lift.
You can read about her plan here.