Can Medicare For All Reduce the Cost of Care?

Published June 9, 2020

Supporters of Medicare for All claim that it would lower health care costs, but they fail to recognize that these low costs rely heavily on “cross-subsidies” with private insurance. Adopting a Medicare for All system could result in enormous negative impacts in access to and quality of health care. Policy makers should be skeptical of the savings promised by Medicare for All and acknowledge their inevitable consequences.

Discussion Questions:

1. What would happen if a single-payer, Medicare for All–type program were created in the United States?
2. Are there non-single-payer solutions to improving the health care system?

Additional Resources:

• Read “The Sobering Implications of Health Care Reform,” by Lanhee Chen via Defining Ideas. Available here.
• Listen to “Lanhee Chen: Democrats Push Single-Payer Health Care Plan” via Townhall Review. Available here.
• Listen to “Why the Health Care Wars Just Won’t End” with Lanhee Chen. Available here.