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Tuesday, July 31st, 2018

Koch-Backed Think Tank Finds That “Medicare for All” Would cut Health Care Spending and Raise Wages… Whoops

Author:     Ryan Grim and Zaid Jilani
Source:     The Intercept
Publication Date:     July 30 2018, 3:44 p.m.
 Link: Koch-Backed Think Tank Finds That “Medicare for All” Would cut Health Care Spending and Raise Wages… Whoops
Stephan:   This is a very interesting and embarrassing story, but I am surprised anyone is surprised by its conclusions. The United States is the only developed nation in the world that has a healthcare system that is not really about healthcare instead it is all about profit, and is by many multiples the most expensive national system in the world. Even worse although Americans pay many multiples of what a person would pay in those other countries we have rotten healthcare outcomes when compared with those countries -- 37th in the world. What is interesting to me is how christofascist politicians are going to deal with this data, given it comes from an alt-right think tank. My guess is they will just ignore it, and gaslight the country when pressed to talk about it, if the media even bothers.

Credit: The Intercept

A new study from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University is making headlines for projecting that Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s “Medicare for All” bill is estimated to cost $32.6 trillion — a number that’s entirely in line with 2016 projections, and is literally old news. But what the Associated Press headline fails to announce is a much more sanguine update: The report, by Senior Research Strategist Charles Blahous, found that under Sanders’s plan, overall health costs would go down, and wages would go up.

The study, which came out of the Koch-funded research center, was initially provided to the AP with a cost estimate that exceeded previous ones by an incredible $3 trillion — a massive error that was found and corrected by Sanders’s staff when approached by AP for comment.

But despite that correction, the report actually yields a wealth of good news for advocates of Sanders’s plan — a remarkable conclusion, given that Blahous is a former Bush administration economist working at a prominent conservative think tank.

Blahous’s paper, titled “The […]

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2 Comments

  1. Rev. Dean on Tuesday, July 31, 2018 at 10:32 am

    Hopefully, this may bring both sides closer to the realization that single-payer is the best way to go. I sure hope the Dem’s and Rep’s can get together on this very important issue.

    • Ken on Tuesday, July 31, 2018 at 12:21 pm

      I suspect anything coming from the Koch brothers – 2 of the greediest people on the planet. What’s in it for them?