Yale Study Says Medicare for All Would Save U.S. $450 Billion, Prevent Nearly 70,000 Deaths a Year

This program from this past February remains deeply relevant to today — and even more so in the midst of the pandemic that now kills thousands each and everyday. We will never approach becoming a humane and just nation as long as the most basic human rights of our citizens are obstructed and denied due to toxic greed and the perpetuation of  the deadly predatory capitalist system that's long been killing humans, other beings, and the planet. For the United States to continue to be the only developed nation to deny healthcare as a human right is the darkest of the dark. It is an act of evil. The shadow side of our nation makes my heart hurt, as it should us all. Another world is possible, one which we must continue to demand and fight for! — Molly

As the Democratic presidential hopefuls prepare to take to the debate stage tonight, we turn to a central issue of the campaign: Medicare for All. In a new study, Yale scholars have found that Medicare for All will save Americans more than $450 billion and prevent 68,000 deaths every year. The study in The Lancet — one of the oldest and most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals — found that Medicare for All, supported by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, will save money and is more cost-effective than “Medicare for All Who Want It, “a model supported by Pete Buttigieg. Sanders referenced the study at a campaign rally in Carson City, Nevada. For more, we go to New Haven, Connecticut, where we’re joined by Alison Galvani, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analysis at Yale’s School of Public Health. She is the lead author of the new Lancet study, “Improving the prognosis of health care in the USA.”

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, as the Democratic presidential hopefuls prepare to take to the debate stage tonight, we turn to a central issue of the campaign: Medicare for All. In a new study, Yale scholars have found that Medicare for All will save Americans more than $450 billion and prevent 68,000 deaths every year. The study in The Lancet, one of the oldest and most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals, found that Medicare for All, supported by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, will save money and is more cost-effective than “Medicare for All Who Want It,” a model supported by Pete Buttigieg. Sanders referenced the study at a campaign rally in Carson City, Nevada.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: A study was published by a group of epidemiologists from Yale University on Medicare for All. This is not Bernie Sanders; this is Yale scholars publishing in a prestigious medical journal. This is what they said in that article, and I quote: “Taking into account both the costs of coverage expansion” — in other words, under Medicare for All, more people are starting, going to get the healthcare they need — “and the savings that would be achieved through the Medicare for All Act, we calculate that a single-payer, universal health-care system is likely to lead to a 13% savings in national health-care expenditure, equivalent to more than $450 billion annually.” …

In other words, if we end the profiteering of the insurance companies and the drug companies — and they made $100 billion in profits last year — if we end the absurdity of having thousands of different healthcare plans and the hundreds of billions it takes to administer these thousands of plans. All of you have had the experience of getting on the phone, arguing with some insurance company. You thought you were covered, and they’re telling you — you’re paying for the other guy at the end of the line who’s telling you you’re not covered, when you paid for it and you thought you were covered. We can save $500 billion a year by ending the administrative nightmare that currently exists in healthcare.  

AMY GOODMAN: That was presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. For more, we go to New Haven, Connecticut, where we’re joined by Alison Galvani, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analysis at Yale’s School of Public Health. She’s the lead author of the new medical journal Lancet study called “Improving the prognosis of health care in the USA.”

Thanks so much for being with us, Alison. If you could start off by responding to the way in this country — we certainly see it in all of the debates, what the moderators ask. Is Medicare for All going to increase taxes, as opposed to the overall cost of healthcare? Lay out what you found.

ALISON GALVANI: Well, on the one hand, Medicare for All will increase taxes for households and employers. I think the important point is that, overall, it will reduce costs for both the taxpayer households as well as the employer, because it will eliminate the even higher costs of healthcare premiums paid by individuals and employers. It will also eliminate pharmaceutical prices, deductibles, copays and all these other fees.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And in terms of Joe Biden, Vice President Joe Biden has said repeatedly that Medicare for All would cost more than the entire federal budget. Could you respond to that?

ALISON GALVANI: Well, we found that Medicare for All would save over $450 billion compared to what the country is paying now. So, right now the U.S. is paying more than any other country for healthcare, yet we don’t even rank in the top 34, some key public health measures, including infant mortality and overall life expectancy. And at the same time, there’s over 80 million people without adequate health insurance, so either without any health insurance or without health insurance that they can afford.

And the Medicare for All Act identifies a number of ways in which it’s going to save the country money. So, firstly, what people pay right now for hospital services doesn’t correlate with their outcomes, their clinical outcomes, and it varies widely. So, by applying Medicare rates to the entire country, that will save us $100 billion right there. Another important point is that Medicare for All will minimize paperwork and will streamline administration and billing. So, currently, Medicare has an overhead of 2.2%, whereas private insurance, it’s over 12%. So, applying Medicare overhead to the entire country will save us $200 billion.

To continue the transcript and for the original program, please go here: https://www.democracynow.org/2020/2/19/lancet_report_medicare_for_all