November, 29 2018, 11:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Robert Pollin, pollin@econs.umass.edu
Jeannette Wicks-Lim, wickslim@peri.umass.edu
Jared Sharpe, 413/545-3809, jsharpe@umass.edu
In-Depth Analysis by Team of UMass Amherst Economists Shows Viability of Medicare For All
Comprehensive plan is estimated to reduce U.S. health consumption expenditures by nearly 10 percent, while providing decent health care coverage to all Americans
AMHERST, Mass.
A team of economists from the University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) has found that the Medicare for All Act of 2017, introduced to the United States Senate by Senator Bernie Sanders, is not only economically viable, but could actually reduce health consumption expenditures by about 9.6 percent while also providing decent health care coverage for all Americans.
In a nearly 200-page report released at the Sanders Institute Gathering, the first major event hosted by the think tank founded by Jane O'Meara Sanders and David Driscoll, the senator's wife and son, the economists outline seven major aspects of transforming the U.S. health care system, detailing step-by-step the actions needed to be taken to achieve truly universal health care and its potential impacts on individuals, families, businesses and government. The analysis, which was in development for 18 months, has received praise from 11 distinguished experts in the fields of economics and health care studies who have rigorously reviewed the researchers' findings.
"The most fundamental goals of Medicare for All are to significantly improve health care outcomes for everyone living in the United States while also establishing effective cost controls throughout the health care system. These two purposes are both achievable," says lead author Robert Pollin, Distinguished Professor in economics at UMass Amherst and co-director of PERI. "As of 2017, the U.S. was spending about $3.24 trillion on personal health care--about 17 percent of total GDP. Meanwhile, 9 percent of U.S. residents have no insurance and 26 percent are underinsured--they are unable to access needed care because of prohibitively high costs. Other high-income countries spend an average of about 40 percent less per person and produce better health outcomes. Medicare for All could reduce total health care spending in the U.S. by nearly 10 percent, to $2.93 trillion, while creating stable access to good care for all U.S. residents."
The PERI research team of Pollin, James Heintz, Peter Arno, Jeannette Wicks-Lim and Michael Ash, found that Medicare for All would reduce annual health care spending to $2.93 trillion from the current level of $3.24 trillion. Public health care revenue sources that presently provide about 60 percent of all U.S. health care financing, including funding for Medicare and Medicaid, would provide $1.88 trillion of financing for the new system. Removing the other costs attributed with the current system would leave a gap of $1.05 trillion, which the economists suggest could be raised with a set of four proposals that will generate enough revenue to create a surplus of 1 percent for the system.
The researchers propose:
- Continuing business health care premiums, but with a cut of 8 percent relative to existing spending per worker. Businesses that have been providing coverage for their employees would thereby see their health care costs fall by between about 8-13 percent. ($623 billion)
- A 3.75 percent sales tax on non-necessities, which includes exemptions for spending on necessities such as food and beverages consumed at home, housing and utilities, education and non-profits. The researchers include a 3.75 percent income tax credit for families currently insured by Medicaid. ($196 billion)
- A net worth tax of 0.38 percent, with an exemption for the first $1 million in net worth. The researchers state that this tax would therefore apply to only the wealthiest 12 percent of U.S. households. ($193 billion)
- Taxing long-term capital gains as ordinary income. ($69 billion)
Under these recommendations, the researchers find that the net costs of health care for middle-income families would fall by between 2.6 and 14 percent of income. For high-income families health care costs will rise, but only to an average of 3.7 percent of income for those in the top 20 percent income group, and to 4.7 percent of income for the top 5 percent.
The researchers also find that based on 2017 U.S. health care expenditure figures, the cumulative savings for the first decade operating under Medicare for All would be $5.1 trillion, equal to 2.1 percent of cumulative GDP, without accounting for broader macroeconomic benefits such as increased productivity, greater income equality and net job creation through lower operating costs for small- and medium-sized businesses.
"Medicare for All will produce large cost savings for both businesses and households," says co-author Jeannette Wicks-Lim, associate research professor at PERI. "Under our proposal, all businesses that now provide health care coverage for their employees will receive an across-the-board 8 percent cut in premiums. For families, our results show that Medicare for All will promote both lower average costs and greater equity. For example, middle-income families who now purchase private insurance on the individual market would see their health care costs fall by an average of 14 percent under Medicare for All."
"This study is the most comprehensive, detailed, authoritative study ever undertaken of Medicare for All, and it points powerfully and unassailably in support of MFA," said economist and public policy expert Jeffrey Sachs, University Professor at Columbia University, in reviewing the researchers' analysis. "Medicare for All promises a system that is fairer, more efficient, and vastly less expensive than America's bloated, monopolized, over-priced and under-performing private health insurance system. America spends far more on health care and gets far less for its money than any other high-income country. This study explains why, and shows how Medicare for All offers a proven and wholly workable way forward."
In his review of the report, William Hsiao, K.T. Li Professor of Economics at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said the study "presents an objective, unbiased, comprehensive and thorough economic analysis of Medicare for All. Professor Pollin and his co-authors have set a new high standard for transparency and clarity in presenting their analyses, estimations, and conclusions. The research methods they used to estimate both the cost increases and savings are sound. The assumptions they used to generate cost estimations are based on the latest empirical evidence. Consequently, the conclusions of this study on the overall costs and savings of Medicare for All are reasonable and scientifically sound."
"This stellar economic analysis of a single-payer, universal health care system for the U.S. is the first to sufficiently document each step of the calculations, enabling reproducibility of the findings. It is also the first study that thoroughly addresses the transition to and financing of a universal health care system for the U.S.," said Alison Galvani, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analysis and Burnett and Stender Families' Professor of Epidemiology at Yale University, in her review of the report. "Underlying the analysis is an interdisciplinary evidence base that has been compiled from literature spanning economics, health policy and clinical care both within the US and internationally. The methodology is sound and the assumptions are conservative with regard to their conclusions. Specifically, lower-end figures from the expert literature are used in the calculation of savings, whereas anticipated expenditures are based on the higher end of empirical distributions. Despite stacking the deck against Medicare for All, this analysis convincingly demonstrates the substantial improvements in cost efficiency that could be achieved by Medicare for All. I am confident that the Pollin et al. study will become recognized as the seminal analysis of a single-payer universal health care system for the U.S."
Pollin and Wicks-Lim were joined in crafting the analysis by UMass Amherst colleagues James Heintz, associate director and Andrew Glyn Professor of Economics, Peter Arno, senior fellow and director of health policy research, and Michael Ash, senior research fellow and professor of economics and public policy.
The complete report, "Economic Analysis of Medicare for All:" can be found online here (pdf).
The full set of reviews of the report by economics and health care studies experts can be found here.
LATEST NEWS
Amid Israeli Bombs, Bullets, and Blockade, Gazans Now Face Suffocating Heat
"The tent feels like it's on fire," said one young refugee mother. "It's so hot you can't bear it, especially with young children."
Apr 26, 2024
Just a few months ago, Palestinian children exposed to the elements amid Israel's genocidal assault on of Gaza were dying of hypothermia. Now they're facing potentially deadly heat as temperatures soar to over 100°F in the embattled strip, where hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced people are sweltering in tents and other makeshift shelters.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) warned Friday that "unexpected blistering temperatures across Gaza have added to the daily misery faced by the enclave's people and sparked new fears of disease outbreaks amid a lack of sufficient clean water and waste disposal."
"It is so hard. It's a heat that I can't describe."
Although there was a repsite Friday, temperatures in Gaza have soared as high as 108°F in recent days, and it's not even May yet. During the hotter summer months, the mercury can soar to over 120°F. Even with air conditioning and refrigeration during less trying times, Gazans often struggled with the summertime heat.
Now those luxuries are gone, replaced by suffocating heat, privation, and the ever-present threat of death or injury from Israeli bombs and bullets as the approximately 1.5 million people sheltering in Rafah brace for an impending invasion.
Many refugees are sheltering in structures made from heat-trapping agricultural greenhouses.
"The tent feels like it's on fire," Maryam Arafat, a young mother of three, toldThe New York Times earlier this week as her infant daughter screamed in discomfort. "It's so hot you can't bear it, especially with young children."
Gaza City refugee Mustafa Radwan told U.N. News that "it is like living in a greenhouse, no one can tolerate living inside."
Arafat and Radwan are but two of the approximately 2 million Palestinians forced from their homes by Israel's relentless bombardment and invasion of Gaza following the October 7 attacks.
Day after day, refugees are forced to wait in long lines for water and other necessities. Safe drinking water is particularly hard to find. Ice is nonexistent.
"Everything is a queue, everything is suffering in displacement," lamented Radwan.
Arafat said: "Everything has become difficult in this world. There is no water."
The scorching heat only adds to the misery. So do recent decisions—trees that were chopped down in the cold months for heating and cooking fuel are no longer there to provide shade as spring marches into summer.
Warmer temperatures also bring insects, some of which carry diseases.
"We can't sit outside and we can't sit inside the tent," Fadwa Abu Waqfa, another mother of three living in a tent in Rafah, told the Times. "It is so hard. It's a heat that I can't describe."
Dr. Ahmed Hanouda, director of a pop-up clinic in the Mawasi area of the devastated southern city of Khan Younis, told U.N. Newsthat "with the onset of summer, difficulties increase from water scarcity and overcrowding, leading to the spread of infectious diseases, skin sensitivities, lice, and other illnesses."
"We are, of course, trying to address these problems and provide services to the displaced people under these challenging circumstances based on the available resources," Hanouda added. "We look forward to offering better services and providing better facilities in the coming days."
Keep ReadingShow Less
House Progressives Blast Attempts to Discredit Pro-Gaza Campus Protests
Rep. Ayanna Pressley condemned "misinformation that aims to undermine this movement, outside agitators that detract from peaceful solidarity actions, and the aggressive response by law enforcement."
Apr 26, 2024
Progressives in Congress this week have joined professors and Holocaust survivors in supporting peaceful student protests against the U.S.-backed Israeli assault of the Gaza Strip as the demonstrators have been demonized by the White House, Democratic and Republican political leaders, police, administrators, and the corporate media.
"Peaceful protest is a central tenet of our democracy and students standing for justice have often been a catalyst for much-needed change," Rep. Ayanna Pressleysaid Friday. "From the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War protests, the struggle for gender equality, and the movement for Black lives, to the global movement for peace in Israel and Palestine, many of the rights we tout today were earned thanks to the sweat equity of students demonstrating on college campuses across the nation."
Already, hundreds of students and faculty have been arrested for protesting at dozens of U.S. college and university campuses.
Pressley, who supports a cease-fire in Gaza, stressed that "every student, regardless of background or faith, has a right to feel safe and show up in the world without fear or discrimination—and we must ensure that those exercising their right to free speech are met with dignity and respect, not criminalization."
"We cannot lose sight of the horrific injustices that Palestinians in Gaza are facing."
"That is why I am deeply concerned about misinformation that aims to undermine this movement, outside agitators that detract from peaceful solidarity actions, and the aggressive response by law enforcement to students peacefully protesting across the country," Pressley said. "The National Guard or riot police should not be called in response to students' peaceful freedom of expression."
"I am grateful to students nationwide and across the Massachusetts 7th—at Emerson, Northeastern, MIT, Tufts, Boston University, Harvard, and more—who are raising their voices and putting their bodies on the line to press for action to save lives in Gaza," she added. "That is what this movement is about. We cannot lose sight of the horrific injustices that Palestinians in Gaza are facing and I am proud to stand in solidarity with peaceful protestors."
Since October, Israeli forces have
killed at least 34,356 Palestinians, wounded another 77,368, and displaced around 90% of the besieged enclave's 2.3 million people. Thousands more remain missing in the rubble of devastated civilian infrastructure. The International Court of Justice has deemed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war—fueled by U.S. weapons and diplomatic support—plausibly genocidal.
Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-Minn.) daughter Isra Hirsi was suspended from Columbia University's Barnard College earlier this month for "standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide." Omar—a war refugee and longtime critic of the Israeli government—has not only grilled the Ivy League school's president at a congressional hearing but also attended the ongoing demonstration.
"I had the honor of seeing the Columbia University anti-war encampment firsthand," Omar said Thursday. "Contrary to right-wing attacks, these students are joyfully protesting for peace and an end to the genocide taking place in Gaza. I'm in awe of their bravery and courage."
I had the honor of seeing the Columbia University anti-war encampment firsthand.
Contrary to right-wing attacks, these students are joyfully protesting for peace and an end to the genocide taking place in Gaza.
I’m in awe of their bravery and courage. pic.twitter.com/yC6hcBMwCP
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 25, 2024
Omar is a frequent target of right-wing attacks, which she has faced in the past for being outspoken on foreign policy issues and this month for supporting student anti-war protesters.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) claimed that "Omar's pro-Hamas rhetoric solidifies the Democrat Party as the pro-terrorist party."
Responding to Emmer, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) said that "this rampant Islamophobia is unacceptable. My sister Ilhan Omar is standing up with the students peacefully demanding a cease-fire to end the bombing, starving, and killing of Palestinian people. No amount of hatred is going to stop this movement for peace."
Bowman—who faces a primary challenger backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee—has also slammed House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) trip to Columbia and law enforcement's crackdown against students.
"As an educator who personally experienced the overpolicing of our schools, this is personal to me," Bowman said. "We must resist right-wing demagoguery and stop suppressing peaceful protest if we are to keep students safe."
Both Bowman and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) visited the Columbia encampment on Friday. The congresswoman has also publicly
challenged comments from New York Police Department of Patrol John Chell and taken aim at "vulnerable N.Y. Republicans in tight seats" who have gone to campus to condemn the nationwide demonstrations.
"They have played a key role drumming up pressure to crack down on students and asymmetrically police Palestinian human rights speech," Ocasio-Cortez said of her Republican colleagues. "Those campus hearings? GOP-led. They need to lose."
Police violence against students and professors has been on display across the country. A day after state troopers descended on a demonstration at the University of Texas at Austin, Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) addressed protesters, noting the decades of protests at the campus.
"We need a cease-fire now in Gaza. And it is up to us to live that out here today," Casar said, with the crowd echoing his speech line by line. "My message to the university is clear: Students and faculty are not the enemy. Students and faculty are the university. We are the university. This is our democracy. And we are going to save it, here and for the world."
"I am so proud of each and every one of you. Because you have raised your voices, Austin is the largest city in this country where your entire Democratic delegation voted 'no' on sending more weapons to Netanyahu," he noted, eliciting cheers. "There are millions more lives at stake and your continued organizing is the only way we can stop being complicit in this killing and instead get to saving our shared humanity. Solidarity forever."
After defeating a primary challenger backed by a billionaire Republican megadonor and Netanyahu ally earlier this week, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) on Thursday addressed the University of Pittsburgh's encampment.
"While Netanyahu compares students on campuses like Pitt—including Jewish students—protesting peacefully against genocide to Nazis and attempts to define the limits of our free speech and assembly, it's worth noting that there are no universities left in Gaza from Israeli and U.S. bombs," Lee said in a social media post about her speech.
"We must always confront and root out antisemitism anywhere it appears, and not let the white nationalist GOP be the arbiters or weaponizers of it," she continued. "Students engaging in the time-honored tradition of activism and civil disobedience is a crucial right we must all protect."
Rep Summer Lee @RepSummerLee drops by the University of Pittsburgh’s Palestine encampment to support and give propers to the students leading the fight for Pitt to divest from the occupation as part of the broader student movement that erupted across the US. 🇵🇸✊🏼 pic.twitter.com/KFeTNX138G
— Abdelrahman ElGendy (@El_Gendy_95) April 25, 2024
As
Common Dreamsreported Thursday, Jewish Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—who lost family members to the Holocaust—also pushed back against Netanyahu's mischaracterization of U.S. campus protests, asserting, "It is not antisemitic to hold you accountable for your actions."
Others who have spoken out this week include Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), who denounced Republican Gov. Brian Kemp's decision to deploy the Georgia State Patrol at Emory University, saying the officers have "no place on the college campus. And neither do outside agitators who seek to usurp the peaceful protests against the Netanyahu government's killing of tens of thousands of innocent Gazans by giving life to a false narrative that the protest movement is violent and antisemitic."
Drawing on her own experiences with the Black Lives Matter movement, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) said that "as a Ferguson activist, I know what it's like to have agitators infiltrate our movement, manipulate the press, and fuel the suppression of dissent by public officials and law enforcement. We must reject these tactics to silence anti-war activists demanding divestment from genocide."
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) declared that "the rights to peaceful assembly and to express dissent are constitutional freedoms. Criminalizing young people who are using their voices to call for peace is not only harmful; it endangers the well-being of the students and the health of our multiracial, multicultural democracy. Resisting war and standing up for peace are not a crime."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Alabama House Passes Bill That Could Be 'Used to Arrest Librarians'
"I feel like this is a violation of the First Amendment, and it's easily going to be abused," one Democratic lawmaker said.
Apr 26, 2024
The Alabama House of Representatives voted 72-28 on Thursday in favor of a bill that would apply the state's criminal obscenity laws to public libraries, public school libraries, and the people who work there.
Critics, including the Alabama Library Association, have warned that the bill could see librarians jailed and argued that it violates the First Amendment.
"This is a pig," Rep. Chris England (D-70), said during the debate, as AL.com reported. "It is a bad bill, and when you attempt to take what is normally non-criminal conduct and make it criminal, you bend yourself into ways that potentially not only violate the Constitution but potentially subject somebody to an illegal arrest with no due process."
"Why are they coming into libraries or thinking that they can come in and run the place better than us as professionals?"
House Bill 385 would allow anyone to write a letter to a school district superintendent or head librarian claiming a book is obscene. The Montgomery Advertiser explained further:
The library would be required to remove the materials within seven days of receiving the required written notice. Failure to remove said materials would result in a Class C misdemeanor upon the first offense, a Class B misdemeanor upon the second offense, and a Class A misdemeanor after the third and beyond. They may challenge the claim during the seven-day period.
In Alabama, a Class C misdemeanor carries a maximum sentence of three months in jail and fee of $500. The maximum sentence for a Class B misdemeanor is six months of jail time and a $3,000 fee, while a Class A misdemeanor carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $6,000 fee.
The bill also adds to the definition of the "sexual conduct" minors must be protected from to include "any sexual or gender-oriented material that knowingly exposes minors to persons who are dressed in sexually revealing, exaggerated, or provocative clothing or costumes, or are stripping, or engaged in lewd or lascivious dancing, presentations, or activities in K-12 public schools, public libraries, and other public places where minors are expected and are known to be present without parental consent."
During the debate, England warned, "This process will be manipulated and used to arrest librarians that you don't like, and not because they did anything criminal. It's because you disagree with them," as The Associated Press reported.
Rep. Mary Moore (D-59) warned that the description of sexual conduct was loose enough that it could apply to students dressed up for prom, according to AL.com.
"Some of them would be under the jail because of this," Moore said.
Rep. Neil Rafferty (D-54) also expressed concerns that the language could apply to people in Halloween costumes or wearing summer clothing.
"I feel like this is a violation of the First Amendment, and it's easily going to be abused," he said, according to AP.
Rep. Barbara Drummond (D-103) said the bill was "putting lipstick on a pig," and added that the government "can't legislate morality," and that it would prevent children from "having an open mind," AL.com reported.
The bill comes amid increased politicization of libraries and attempts to ban books, especially in Republican-led states.
In Alabama, the legislature is also considering making $6.6 million in public library funding dependent on whether a library relocates materials deemed inappropriate for children, AL.com reported further. Nationwide, PEN America found that the total number of book bans in schools and libraries during just the first half of the 2023-2024 school year was greater than all the titles banned in 2022-2023, and that number had already jumped by 33% from the school year before.
The bill applying obscenity laws to libraries now heads to the Senate, but Alabama Library Association president Craig Scott told AP the state should expect to lose "lawsuit after lawsuit" if it becomes law.
"Why are they coming into libraries or thinking that they can come in and run the place better than us as professionals?" Scott asked.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular