Editors at Investor’s Business Daily wonder whether leading Democrats have spent much time considering the wisdom of Bernie Sanders‘ health care proposals.
Democrats are lining up to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders’ plan to socialize medicine. But have they actually read what it is they are signing up for?
Sanders touts his “Medicare for all” as the solution to all our nation’s health care woes. No more premiums, no more deductibles or copays, no provider networks. The government would pick up all the costs, except for possibly minimal copays for prescription drugs. Private insurance would be effectively outlawed.
A third of Senate Democrats co-sponsored Sanders’ bill, and a similar measure in the House has 117 Democratic co-sponsors. Sanders is now the standard-bearer for the party on health reform. …
… It’s hard to know where to begin to show just how radical Sanders’ plan really is.
But let’s start with this. There is no industrialized country in the world that has a government-run health care system as vast as the one Sanders proposes.
Not one.
Plenty of other countries “guarantee” health care to their citizens, and pay most of the costs with tax dollars. But none promises first-dollar coverage for all health care, without limits.
Even Sanders’ beloved Canadian single-payer system doesn’t cover prescription drugs, home care or long-term care, vision or dental.
And as IBD noted recently, every one of the countries that Sanders’ points to as models for the U.S. relies on out-of-pocket spending to cover a significant portion of their health costs. In the Netherlands it’s 12.2%, in Denmark, it’s 13.7%, in Switzerland, 27.7%, in the U.K. and Canada, it’s 15%.
Many “single-payer” countries also rely on the private sector to one degree or another. In Canada, 15% of health costs are paid by private insurers. In Germany, upper income Germans can opt out of the government “sickness funds” and buy private coverage.
