Yeah, I said it!
Polls ask 18 to 30-year-olds and 30 to 40-year-olds, “Do you support universal healthcare?” and they say yes because we are seldom ever told the rest. We aren’t told how much it will cost or how it will be paid for. Should everyone have healthcare? Sure. Who’s saying no? Then they stop. They never ask the follow-up. To pay for it, your taxes would triple. The program runs about $3.9 trillion a year on top of everything Washington already spends. Total revenue/taxes/fees is $5.4 trillion. This one program would eat most of the country’s income before a soldier gets paid or a Social Security check goes out. Your union plan, your employer plan, your private coverage—all gone, no opt-out. And that’s before the DSA piles on free college, free housing, free childcare. Not a fringe group anymore. The loudest faction in the party, and their wishlist isn’t in that $3.9 trillion per year either. The 18 to 30-year-old crowd says yes fast because they’ve never signed the check. The 30 to 40-year-old crowd should know better but isn’t asking either. That’s not compassion. That’s not having to pay for it. Take 10 minutes. Grab a calculator. Read the facts, the questions, and the answers that back up my claim. Then tell me, are we dummies or did we just get smarter?
How Dumb Are We? What Is the Price Tag?
Single-payer estimates run from about $32 trillion over 10 years to $47 trillion. I’m using $39 trillion, the middle, rounded. That’s $3.9 trillion a year, every year thereafter, not counting inflation. That figure already includes $2.8 trillion in administrative savings from the government. Keep in mind this would be a new government program. The same government that can’t run the post office at a profit. So sure, let them now operate on your heart (review my glossary notes if you want my receipts).
Is the Money There? NO!
The money isn’t there. Washington brings in about $5.4 trillion a year. Individual income taxes are about $2.85 trillion. So even the middle number costs more than every working American pays in income tax. Stack it on a deficit near $2 trillion, and something gets deleted. How do you pay for your Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines? The latest jets, ships, and missile defense? Federal money that supplements public schools in every state? Or do those dollars start competing with seniors who paid into Social Security for 40 years? This does not include the DSA part of the Democratic Party that wants to provide universal housing to every citizen. That is for another day of accountability with an astronomical number that is not included in this government number. Some or all of those programs go bye-bye. Which one hits you?
Even the sponsors can’t pay for it. The sponsors of the proposed Medicare for All bills, Bernie Sanders in the Senate, Pramila Jayapal in the House, with Warren, Van Hollen, Dingell and over 100 House cosponsors, their own financing plan covers only a fraction of the cost and leaves a hole of tens of trillions with no answer attached. This new bill would be fighting Social Security and Medicare for the same tax dollars, programs people actually paid into for 40 years. Again, ask the sponsors how they close the gap. They don’t have an answer. They’ve never had one.
Who Pays?
Why does somebody who never paid in get the same card as somebody who worked forty years? The answer is always “it’s free.” It’s not. It’s just not free for them; it’s free the way a restaurant meal is free when someone else grabs the check, and that someone is you.
The Tax Hike They Would Rather You Not Notice!
Under the $39 trillion estimate, the average effective income tax rate jumps from 14.1 percent to 39.6 percent. Nearly triple. The average household pays about $22,000 more a year. They’ll say you won’t pay premiums anymore. True. You’ll pay them to the IRS instead, with no option to shop, no option to switch, and the same customer service you get at the DMV. They’ll say it’s cheaper. That’s like saying a car with no engine is cheaper than one with a full tank. Technically true. But either way, you’re not going anywhere.
Let’s Take It From the Billionaires!
OK, let’s seize every dollar from every American billionaire, which is roughly worth $9 trillion. At $39 trillion, that covers less than two and a half years. Then the piggy bank’s empty, and you’ve wiped out the people who fund and lead the companies employing millions. Where do the jobs go? Where does the tax revenue those companies generate get made up? It doesn’t. And what’s left of the incentive to innovate, to build the next breakthrough, to outcompete China and the rest of the world? Gone. You’ve killed the goose and you’re holding an empty nest wondering where the eggs went. Some proposals call for adding a 5 percent tax on billionaire wealth. That’s not a solution, that’s a footnote. Billionaires aren’t the issue. The issue is $39 trillion, and no amount of targeting the rich gets you there.
What About the Scandinavian Countries Where Some Say Universal Healthcare Is Working?
It has never worked at our scale. Canada ranks near the bottom of wealthy countries for seeing a doctor. Only about 22 percent get in the same day. Median wait from referral to treatment is about 30 weeks. That’s not a wait, that’s a pregnancy. The UK’s NHS has over 7 million people on waiting lists. Then they say, what about Sweden and Norway? Norway has 5.5 million people and a sovereign oil fund more than $1.7 trillion. Sweden has about 10.5 million people. You’re comparing a midwestern state to a continent. When healthcare breaks in Oslo, the whole country hears about it by lunch. When it breaks here, it breaks quietly in a waiting room, and Washington doesn’t notice for years.
The Bottom Line
$39 trillion is more than every dollar of income tax we collect. Tax rates nearly tripled. Less than two and a half years of billionaire money, then a permanent shortage of billionaires and a socialist track record that has never worked wherever it’s been tried: longer lines, fewer doctors, more waiting. Have you ever done the math? It’s not much harder than a couple minutes on a calculator. Their proposals just don’t add up.
If you still think these proposals work, we just may be the dummies that they think we are.
