Responding to allegations from Hillary Clinton's camp that his health care plans would jeopardize existing public health programs, including the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Children's Health Insurance Program, Bernie Sanders released an outline on Sunday of his health care vision, which he termed "Medicare for All."
The eight-page document describes PPACA as an improvement of the U.S. health care system, but an improvement that falls far short of guaranteeing every American access to the level of care that residents of other western countries are entitled to.
"(W)e must build upon the success of the ACA to achieve the goal of universal health care," the plan proclaims. "Twenty-nine million Americans today still do not have health insurance and millions more are underinsured and cannot afford the high copayments and deductibles charged by private health insurance companies that put profits before people."
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As a solution, Sanders proposes a single-payer system administered by the federal government, essentially extending the current structure in place for Medicare to non-seniors.
At the very least, the role of insurers and employers in health care would be dramatically reduced.
Although Sanders has boasted that his plan would remove insurers entirely from health care, insurance plans do exist even in countries with single-payer systems, albeit on a much smaller scale.
Sanders estimates his plan will cost $1.38 trillion a year. He proposes paying for it with a variety of new taxes, many of which he argues will be offset by the reduced cost of health care that he believes will result from a single payer system.
There are three main sources of revenue. The first is a 6.2 percent health care premium paid by employers, which Sanders estimates will generate $630 billion in revenue annually.
Second, he proposes a 2.2 percent premium paid by households, which he says will generate $210 billion annually.
Finally, since employers will no longer be providing health insurance to employees, they will no longer benefit from a large portion of their income being exempt from taxation, which Sanders estimates will generate another $310 billion a year.
In addition, Sanders claims his proposed tax increases on the wealthy, both in the form of increased income taxes and increased capital gains taxes, will generate over $200 billion a year.
Nevertheless, Sanders insists his plan will put more money in Americans' pockets, saying it will save the country $6 trillion over a decade or $5,000 a year for the average middle class family.
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