Healthcare in America — On the Sidelines – Medicare for All Sounds Simple – Video

The healthcare plan currently being proposed under the name Medicare for All sounds wonderful. Universal coverage. No premiums. No deductibles. No copays for most covered care. One system for everyone.

The problem isn’t necessarily the goal. The problem is the size of the change.

The current House and Senate bills are not simply an expansion of Medicare or a public option. They would create a national single-payer system and largely replace employer insurance, individual insurance, Medicaid, CHIP and the ACA marketplace. Private insurers would generally be limited to supplemental coverage. The proposed transition is remarkably short—roughly two years.

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So when somebody promises to fix healthcare, don’t just ask whether it sounds good.

Ask how.

Where does the money come from? Who pays? Who gets paid? What happens to the people and businesses already in the system? How long does it take? What happens during the transition? What happens when something goes wrong?

If the person making the promise can’t give you a reasonably good answer to those questions, they may have a great campaign slogan.

They may not have a healthcare plan.

The answer to America’s healthcare problem isn’t going to come exclusively from the left or the right. Ultimately, it will come from the people demanding something more useful than a slogan: specifics.