Medicare for All isn’t Medicare at All! Medicare for All is Medicare for None! These slogans just scratch at the surface of the truth behind the deception title of the healthcare system being promoted by socialist politicians. Medicare for All is simply socialized medicine. But what does that mean you ask? I’ve tried to explain it in previous posts but I was very impressed with a new article published in The Wall Street Journal recently.

Author Joel Zinberg gives us some alarming information about this socialized medicine system first promoted by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an avowed communist. While Sanders’ ideas were ignored or derided for many years, they are now on the front lines of the political debate.

Zinberg tells us two-thirds of Americans favor Medicare for All, according to a new KFF poll—a substantial increase from 2020, when roughly half of respondents were in favor. But most Americans don’t understand the proposal or its likely effects. Medicare for All would eliminate competition and choice in medical care, limit access, and inevitably lead to tax increases.

Medicare for All isn’t an expansion of the current Medicare program. Medicare as we know it combines public and private insurance options, allowing competition and choice. Eligible beneficiaries can choose from a traditional Medicare plan run by the federal government, privately-run Medicare Advantage plans, and privately-run Medicare Part D drug plans.

Medicare for All would replace the existing public-private system for financing healthcare with a single, universal insurance program operated by the federal government. It would ban private insurance, including the employer-sponsored group insurance that half of Americans have, if the insurance duplicates any Medicare for All benefits.It would eliminate Medicaid for low-income households, Medicare as it now exists for the elderly and disabled, and the Affordable Care Act exchange-based individual insurance market. The proposal includes systemwide decreases of reimbursement levels below private insurance rates. Patients who don’t like the quality of care provided by the government monopoly would have no other insurance options.

Studies of Mr. Sanders’s original proposal estimated it would increase federal spending by $32 trillion over 10 years. The projected 10-year cost is now $47 trillion, according to a recent White House Council of Economic Advisers estimate. That increased spending could be financed through a combination of deficit spending, program cuts and taxes—most likely heavy on the last.

Like all socialized medicine systems in the world, this would lead to limited access to healthcare providers. Zinberg explains, “Because Medicare for All’s reimbursement rates would be substantially below private insurance rates, providers would respond by offering less service. This would lead to longer waiting times and less access to care. By eliminating the cost-sharing that private plans and Medicare currently impose to limit overconsumption of “free” healthcare, Medicare for All would also increase demand for care, further impairing access and possibly diverting care away from patients with urgent need.”

Socialized medicine systems also ration care by selecting who is approved and who is not for expensive treatments that the government deems “not necessary” depending upon one’s age, disability status, and other factors. Medicare for All will do the same.

Education about Medicare for All changes people’s opinions. When respondents in the KFF poll were told the effects of Medicare for All, support plunged. Only 52% were in favor when told that private insurance would be eliminated, 38% when learning Medicare for All could threaten the current Medicare program, 35% once they considered that Medicare for All could require most Americans to pay higher taxes, and 24% after learning it could lead to delays for medical tests and treatments.

Don’t be fooled by deceptive advertising and false promises of politicians. Medicare for All isn’t for Americans.