Medicare for All Will Benefit Seniors
Improved Medicare for All would mean guaranteed, high-quality health care for every single American. Seniors who are currently enrolled in Medicare would be some of the biggest beneficiaries.
Out-of-pocket health care costs are projected to consume half of the average Social Security check by 2030. The cost of prescription drugs is skyrocketing. With Medicare for All, no longer would seniors be forced to turn over a huge chunk of their hard-earned Social Security benefits to pharma CEOs and for- profit hospital executives.
- Medicare for All would eliminate co-pays and
- Medicare for All would dramatically lower prescription drug costs by taking on big pharma’s
- Medicare for All would improve Medicare’s benefits by adding coverage for essential health care such as dental, vision, and
- Medicare for All includes coverage for home and community-based long-term services and supports including: nursing and medical services, long-term rehabilitative and habilitative, and services to support activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily
- Medicare for All covers all required care and eliminates the need for Medigap
- Unlike our current health care system, which is designed to maximize profits for shareholders and CEOs at the expense of patients, it will prioritize high-quality
Every other industrialized country provides universal health care coverage, spends far less as a percentage of GDP, and produces better outcomes.
Medicare is significantly more efficient than private health insurance: According to the most recent Trustees Report, Medicare spends just 1.1 penny of every dollar on administrative costs. The rest is paid in benefits. In contrast, the administrative costs of private health insurance average around 11 to 17 percent. In some cases, they can run as high as 30 percent.
Medicare’s per capita administrative costs are substantially lower than those in the private sector. And that is without universal coverage, which would allow even greater efficiencies and even lower prices.
It is noteworthy that if the United States had the same per capita health care cost as any other industrialized country, our nation would project long-term federal budget surpluses for the foreseeable future.
Unless we extend Medicare to everyone, costs will rise, giving Republicans the excuse that they want to cut or, worse, privatize Medicare. By replacing for-profit insurance corporations with Medicare for All, we will lower Medicare’s per capita costs and dramatically reduce how much our nation spends on health care. This will free up resources to provide better benefits, and that is how the improved Medicare for All will deliver a dramatically better deal for seniors.