'Medicare for all' bill estimated at $32.6t

WASHINGTON — US Senator Bernie Sanders' "Medicare for all" plan would increase its government healthcare spending by $32.6 trillion over 10 years, according to a study by a university-based libertarian policy center.

The latest plan from the Vermont independent would require historic tax increases as government replaces what employers and consumers now pay for healthcare, according to the analysis being released on Monday by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia. It would deliver significant savings on administration and drug costs, but increased demand for care would drive up spending, the analysis found.

Sanders' plan builds on Medicare, the popular insurance program for seniors. All US residents would be covered with no copays and deductibles for medical services. The insurance industry would be relegated to a minor role.

"Enacting something like 'Medicare for all' would be a transformative change in the size of the federal government," said Charles Blahous, the study's author. He was a senior economic adviser to former President George W. Bush and a public trustee of Social Security and Medicare during the Obama administration.

Responding to the study, Sanders took aim at the Mercatus Center, which receives funding from the conservative Koch brothers. Koch Industries CEO Charles Koch is on the center's board.

"If every major country on earth can guarantee healthcare to all, and achieve better health outcomes, while spending substantially less per capita than we do, it is absurd for anyone to suggest that the United States cannot do the same," Sanders said in a statement. "This grossly misleading and biased report is the Koch brothers response to the growing support in our country for 'Medicare for all'."

Sanders' office has not done a cost analysis, a spokesman said. However, the Mercatus estimates are within the range of other cost projections for Sanders' 2016 plan.

Sanders' staff found an error in an initial version of the Mercatus report, which counted a long-term care program that was in the 2016 proposal but not the current one. Blahous corrected it, reducing his estimate by about $3 trillion over 10 years. Blahous says the report is his own work, not the Kochs.

Also called "single-payer", "Medicare for all" reflects a longtime wish among liberals for a government-run system that covers all US citizens.

AP