Medicare for All truths

Sue Lani Madsen is once again guilty of sloppy journalism when she derides Medicare for All as a “new slogan” with “a big price tag adding more than $32 trillion to the federal budget in its first 10 years,” (“Familiar rub blocks bipartisan health care fix,” Nov. 3).

Without citing her source, she is obviously referring to the 2018 Mercatus report. There really is no doubt from all of the studies that have been done over the last 20 years, including Mercatus, that Medicare for All will save big money. While this study fairly accurately predicts the 10-year cost, it also predicts a $2 trillion savings over our current trajectory. Of course, you have to do your own arithmetic in Table 2 to discover this.

Reporting the projected 10-year cost without also reporting the 10-year savings was an extremely careful obfuscation of otherwise good data to advance the political agenda of the libertarian Koch family which largely funded it. With Medicare for All, reimbursements will go up, but overall costs will go down, thanks to the efficiencies and negotiating power of the non-profit single payer.

Madsen also neglects to mention the CBO report that HR 372 would have no significant net effect on premiums.

Cris M. Currie, RN

Mead