Opposing Medicare for All as a Democrat: Guest MINDSETTER™ Achin

Opposing Medicare for All as a Democrat: Guest MINDSETTER™ Achin

As a Democrat, I know that healthcare is a human right and our nation’s healthcare system is letting too many people down. Right now, costs are too high and, even after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law, too many Americans are without health coverage. The best way to address these issues is to build upon the aspects of the ACA that are working well while continuing to strengthen areas that still need improvement.

Instead, we have a whole faction of the Democratic party hellbent on scrapping the ACA altogether and replacing it with an impractical, fiscally irresponsible, and potentially harmful government-run health care system. Whether you call this Medicare for All or single-payer healthcare, it’s something Americans don’t want and America can’t afford.

A government takeover of insurance would be politically disastrous for Democrats. There’s a reason Barack Obama promised Americans “if you like your insurance, you can keep it.” Polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that only 37% of Americans support having the government as the nation’s only insurance company. In the key swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, there is even less support for Medicare for All. Democrats have spent years trying to convince people that they don’t want to take away private insurance - reversing that would be a major unforced error.

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According to the Urban Institute, a left-leaning think tank, Medicare for All will cost $34 trillion over a ten year period. That number is so large that it’s hard to understand, so here’s some context. $34 trillion is more than our government currently spends on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security combined.

$34 trillion is more than the entirety of the income tax payments the government will take in over a decade. $34 trillion is even more than America’s entire 2018 Gross Domestic Product.

There is simply no way to pay for Medicare for All without massive middle-class tax increases or unprecedented levels of deficit spending.

It has become politically unfashionable to care about debt and deficits, with Republicans abandoning even the pretense of fiscal responsibility following Donald Trump’s election and running up a national debt of $23 trillion. For the first time in America’s history, we will enter the next recession with more debt than we left the previous one. No matter what politicians think, a country can only live beyond its means for so long. Sooner or later, our country will need to get our fiscal house in order or face major economic consequences.

Instead of creating a massive new government spending program at a time when America is least able to afford it, Democrats should be focusing on introducing practical, workable policy solutions that will not saddle the American people with higher taxes or threaten access to health care for anyone.

We can do that by continuing to focus on statewide Medicaid expansion, increasing federal subsidies so low- and middle-income Americans can afford health care coverage, and reprioritizing ACA education and enrollment efforts.

The ACA is still a work in progress—and with premiums expected to drop by another 4 percent next year, it is clear that it is in fact working. Rather than giving up on it, congressional Democrats and presidential candidates should focus on how we can continue to make it work for the American people. Ultimately, that is how we are going to lower health care costs while expanding coverage.

Achin is a Democratic activist.