Radicalized Democrats Want "Medicare for All," Which Would Bankrupt and Ruin Medicare for Seniors

Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman, FedUp PAC

Nothing demonstrates the socialist takeover of the Democrat Party like their new rallying cry, “Medicare for All.”

When Sen. Bernie Sanders, the socialist Democrat from Vermont, proposed this in 2013—just five years ago—not a single Democrat joined in co-sponsoring his bill.

Today he already has 15 co-sponsors, and in the House 117 Democrats are co-sponsoring a similar bill introduced by Rep. John Conyers of Michigan.  Real Clear Politics says 70% of swing district Democratic candidates who won their primaries this year support it.  Probable Democratic presidential candidates favor it, including Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kamala Harris of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.  President Obama, who avoided the issue as president, is now going with the flow and says Medicare for All is a “good new idea.”

“For any Democrat aspiring to run in 2020, it will be very hard not to have endorsed Bernie Sanders’s Medicare-for-all proposal,” says Brian Fallon, a campaign spokesman for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

“Medicare for All” is what we used to call “socialized medicine,” pure and simple.  It would extend coverage to 28.5 million individuals who presently have no health insurance.  It would also eliminate the employer-sponsored health coverage presently used by 155 million Americans and replace that with the government-run health insurance system.       

Such a jarring jump into socialized medicine would bankrupt Medicare, costing $32 trillion over the next decade according to a study by the Mercatus Center.  Seniors who are presently on Medicare should be especially alarmed by bankruptcy caused by such a radical expansion of the system.

Higher taxes—vastly higher taxes—would be an inevitable result of trying to cope with bankruptcy.  Choice in health care plans would be eliminated.  Medical services we now take for granted would be rationed.  Hospitals and other health providers would have to slash staffs because of lower reimbursements.

Even Bernie Sanders’ socialist Vermont says “no thanks”

One of the features of our federal system of government is that it allows states to act as “laboratories” testing new political ideas.  And if any state would be a perfect laboratory for the single-payer system proposed by its own U.S. Senator, Bernie Sanders, that would be far-left Vermont.  Yet Vermont dropped the proposal like a hot potato (or would that be a hot expresso in genteel Vermont?).  The governor backed down when it became obvious the costs and required big tax increases would “hurt our economy.”  Even though the Vermont proposal was less generous than Bernie’s national scheme, it would have increased the state budget by 45%!

If it couldn’t work in socialist-friendly Vermont, what makes the Democrats think it would work in the nation at large?  The big difference would be that the entire nation’s health care system would go bankrupt, rather than the system in just one state.

If you want more documentation explaining why “Medicare for All” would bankrupt the nation, see the study by the Mercatus Center of George Mason University, by Charles Blahous, who served as a public trustee for Social Security and Medicare from 2010 through 2015.

If you thought Obamacare was bad, “Medicare for All” is Obamacare on steroids.  All conservatives must let Republican and Independent voters know that their health care is at risk if the Democrats take control of Congress in November.  It is especially important to alert seniors.  They depend on Medicare.  What will they do if Medicare goes bankrupt because the Democrats have recklessly expanded it to “Medicare for All”?

Email your family and friends, the members of your church and civic organizations, about the dangers of “Medicare for All.”  Start a blog (if you haven’t done so already), post on Facebook and the other social media, and in letters to the editor and the comments sections of articles and websites.  Talk to candidates about alerting voters to the dangers of “Medicare for All.”  Do this yourself by calling in to the radio and TV shows you follow.  AND DO THIS CONSTANTLY UNTIL ELECTION DAY.