Medicare-for-All Costs Less

The United States spends nearly 18 percent of our GDP on health care, far more than any other comparable country. That’s more than $9,000 per person, nearly three times the average for other wealthy countries. Our system includes many expenses that single-payer systems just don’t have, including the cost of all the insurer-created red tape that ties up providers and patients. In fact, nearly one-third of health care spending in the U.S. is for administrative costs. 

Medicare-for-All would allow the government to bargain on behalf of of the American people and bring down the price of health care, including prescription drugs. By getting rid of the many middlemen in the health care system, Medicare-for-All also would significantly reduce administrative waste. Medicare-for-All also woudl eliminate the need for costly advertising, another area of significant waste. 

 

 

 

Resources:

• Report: Funding HR 676: The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act — How We Can Afford a National Single-Payer Health Plan
• News Article: The U.S. Spends More on Healthcare Than Any Other Country — but Not with Better Health Outcomes
• Journal Article: The Current and Projected Taxpayer Shares of U.S. Health Costs
• News Article: How Expensive Would a Single-Payer System Be?
• News Article: Why Single-Payer Health Care Saves Money
• Journal Article: Market-Based Failure — A Second Opinion on U.S. Health Care Costs
• Journal Article: Costs of Health Care Administration in the United States and Canada
• Journal Article: The Healthcare Imperative: Excess Administrative Costs 
• Journal Article: How Health Care Reform Can Lower the Costs of Insurance Administration.
• Journal Article: Medical Spending Differences in the United States and Canada: The Role of Prices, Procedures, and Administrative Expenses
• News Article: The Real Reason Single-Payer Health Care is Hard to Pay For