A recent article claimed that Bernie Sanders’ plan to implement a “Medicare for all” single-payer system would boost the national debt by trillions [“Study: Sanders’ economic plan piles $18T on federal debt,” Nation & World, May 10]. This claim is simply not true: Both the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability Office have acknowledged a single-payer system would save the nation billions of dollars a year.
The health-care system we have in the U.S. is a for-profit enterprise. Not only do we pay insurance companies a profit to keep their shareholders happy, we also pay huge salaries and benefits to the CEOs of these insurance companies. If that weren’t bad enough, we pay for an inefficient billing system run by the doctors and hospitals, which costs billions.
The result is that our existing national health-care system is so inefficient that the cost per citizen in our country is twice the cost of many countries in Europe. However, the most galling thing about our expensive health-care system is that it is not any better than most European health-care systems.
When people turn 60 years old, let us enroll them in the Medicare system rather than waiting until they are 65. Companies would not pay the high cost of medical insurance premiums and employees would not have co-payments once they turn 60 years of age. Both companies and individuals would be required to pay a greater percentage into the Medicare system — both groups would realize a net savings. Over time the age of participation would be driven down to the point where all citizens would be covered by Medicare.
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James J. Farrell, Bellevue