As we finalize our plans for the new year, we’re continuing our email series to refresh you on what Medicare for All is and how it would work by reviewing the six core MFA principles, which you can read and share with others here.

Today’s email is focused on the principle of a single public system. Under Medicare for All, U.S. health care would be publicly funded, through progressive taxation, to cover all necessary care for every resident in the United States. Despite right-wing talking points, this single system would actually eliminate billions in waste and save people thousands on their health care costs!

Our current, for-profit system, with its patchwork combination of public and private insurance, is expensive and riddled with administrative bloat. U.S. spending on health care has drastically increased over time to $4.5 trillion in 2022, with almost 1 out of every 5 dollars spent toward health care.¹

While the Affordable Care Act helped reduce some costs, overhead is still close to 30% of total spending when advertising, lobbying, and other non-health care related activities are added to administrative costs, resulting in only 70 cents on every health care dollar being spent actually going toward our health care.²

Even a study conducted by the Mercatus Center, a conservative think tank, concluded that the U.S. would save $2 trillion over ten years by guaranteeing health care for everyone with Medicare for All. The United States spends 2.5 times the average of other industrialized countries, or an average of $11,193 per person annually, yet we still don’t provide health care to everyone.³ And that’s in addition to the out-of-pocket costs patients pay, which have also continued to increase.

Not only would Medicare for All save a ton of money — it’s what the majority of people want! According to Gallup, a new poll shows 62% of U.S. adults believe “it is the federal government’s responsibility to ensure all Americans have health care coverage.”⁴

That’s the highest percentage of support in more than a decade!

The people of this country demand and deserve a single public health care system that reduces costs while also improving health outcomes and guaranteeing care for all — and we’re going to keep building on that momentum until Medicare for All is passed into law.

In solidarity,

Nurses’ Campaign to Win Medicare for All

 

1 - Health Care Costs and Affordability
2 - Q&A: The National Medicare for All Debate
3 - Ibid
4 - More in U.S. See Health Coverage as Government Responsibility