Prior to her sudden silence after becoming the Democrat presidential nominee, Kamala Harris had been an eager, full-throated supporter of single-payer medicine like the Bernie Sanders-Pramila Jayapal Medicare for All Act of 2023. This would put the federal government in complete control of all aspects of health care: financing, staffing and credentialling, and all medical decisions.
Presumably, if Harris attained the presidency, she would “do whatever it takes,” just as Barack Obama did with the (un)-Affordable Care Act (ACA), to pass her version of Medicare for All. Preserving just one payer for health care is the best choice. That should be the patient, not the federal government.
Although the specifics of Medicare for All are variable and complex, the major elements are straightforward. D.C. promises to deliver cradle-to-grave medical care at a cost of $32.6 to $40 trillion over a 10-year period. The higher figure is according to Sanders.
For perspective, consider the following amounts. The ACA cost $1.76 trillion. The U.S. expended $4.8 trillion on medical care in 2023 when the U.S. gross domestic product was $27.3 trillion. In 2023, the combined GDP of all nations was $105 trillion. Harris would spend nearly half the productivity of planet Earth on her single-payer health care.
Medicare for All would abolish all public and private insurance plans, except Indian Health Service and Tricare, replacing them with a single federal plan. A national health budget would dictate payments for both services and goods. Patients would pay nothing directly but a massive amount indirectly, as Medicare for All would be funded by
