We spend $3.24 trillion a year on health care in the United States. Medicare for All would cover everyone with comprehensive benefits without premiums, co-pays or deductibles. And it would cost less: about $2.96 billion.*

How is that possible? The savings come from cutting out private insurance company profits as well as cutting administrative costs – billing thousands of different health plans and keeping track of all those deductibles and co-pays and co-insurance. It would also save money by negotiating drug prices, cutting waste and fraud, and establishing uniform billing.

Much more of our country’s healthcare spending will go to healthcare under Medicare for All. Overall insurance administration will fall by an estimated 58% from its current level. This will result in the elimination of:

– 800,000 jobs in the healthcare insurance industry
– One million jobs in doctors’ offices, clinics, hospitals, etc.

Impacted workers need to be front and center in defining a just transition. Paying lip service to job loss with vague promises of job training will not work. DJDI is working to amplify the need for a robust Just Transition for health insurance and health care workers as we move toward Medicare for All.

Source: Robert Pollin, James Heintz, Peter Arno, Jeannette Wicks-Lim, and Michael Ash, “Economic Analysis of Medicare for All,” University of Massachusetts Amherst, Political Economy and Research Institute, November 2018.