Correspondent Margot Sanger-Katz examines the conundrum: At least two respectable analyses have found Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Medicare for All plan will cost significantly more than promoted — including this one from the Urban Institute — yet as Sen. Sanders repeats, many other countries have single-payer systems and pay much less than the U.S.
How can this be? According to The New York Times, the following factors explain why the U.S. may not be ready for a single-payer system.
- Sen. Sanders plan covers more than most insurance plans in the U.S. cover and more than most cover abroad, accounting for some of the costs associated with the plan.
- Physicians and hospitals in the U.S. are compensated at higher rates than their counterparts abroad. An American family physician earns an average of $207,000 annually, compared to British family physicians who earn $81,000 to $122,000, according to the report.
- The U.S. also pays significantly higher prices for drugs.
There are certainly a lot of unnecessary costs still to be squeezed out of the system, Ms. Sanger-Katz writes, “But more than 80 percent of the dollars we currently spend on healthcare actually go toward healthcare. And making big cuts all at once to doctors and hospitals could cause substantial disruptions in care.”
Read the full analysis here.
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