On March 3, Democrats in Massachusetts will have the opportunity to vote in the Democratic Primary. I am supporting Bernie Sanders, and Medicare for All.
There are lots of things that I could say about single-payer health insurance, but I give you some numbers. I am a senior and on Medicare, as it presently exists. Surprising to some, all of Medicare is not free. If you want your doctor visits covered, you have to pay for Medicare Part B. Let’s talk about the dollars and cents of the basic insurance.
Medicare is health insurance. It is not “socialized medicine.” When you go from the insurance you receive at work to Medicare, nothing changes unless your doctor does not take Medicare as an insurance. And as we know, some doctors don’t take some private insurances, as well.
Eighty percent of medical bills for Medicare Part B are paid by Medicare. That leaves 20 percent that you either have to pay yourself or pay for by buying private insurance. So, using myself as an example, I pay Medicare $145 each month to cover that 80 percent of my outpatient doctor visits, physical therapy, etc. To cover the 20 percent, I pay a private insurer $104 each month. Let’s do the math. 80% = $145 and 20% = $104. That does not make much sense, does it? So, why the big difference?
First of all, Medicare has millions of subscribers, so the cost of my medical care is mixed in with that of millions of others, some who have medical costs, some who don’t. The costs are spread among us. My private insurer probably has hundreds of thousands of subscribers, so the costs are not spread among as many people. The cost to each of us in my private insurance plan is more because there are fewer people to spread the costs to.
Second, the administrative costs for Medicare are 3 percent. That means that $4.35 of my $145 payment goes to administration each month. The average administrative cost for private insurers is 25 percent. So, $26.03 of my $104 payment goes to administration. Basically, my private insurance just costs more.
If I could pay only Medicare for 100 percent, I expect the entire cost would be about 120 percent of the $145 I pay now, about $36 additional for a total of $181. The administrative cost on this would be $5.44. I would pay less out of pocket total … $68 less for the same care … $816 per year! And we have not even talked about co-pays, deductibles and the like that are part of private insurance.
This would also apply to anyone who is employed and has private insurance through an employer. Under Medicare for All, the costs of your health care would be spread over 350 million people, some of whom need very little health care, some of whom need a lot. The administrative cost percentage should not change because Medicare already manages millions of people. They would need to hire more folks to do the paperwork, but they would all be managing the same number of cases that the present folks manage, so the percentage of costs should not change, just the number of people managing them.
If you are an employer who provides health insurance to your employees, think of the time and energy you would save. You would no longer have to talk to health insurance salespeople, compare plans, tell your employees that they have to change their doctors every year because the plan changed, etc. You would know what your percentage of the costs would be. Your employees would know what their percentage of the cost would be. It would be paid in the same manner that Social Security is paid today.
And if you are an employer who does not provide insurance, you would benefit, too. Yes, you would be paying for something you do not pay for now, but your employees would not come to work sick because now they could actually afford to go to the doctor. Your employees would stay with your company and not be looking for a job where they would get a health insurance benefit. You would have happy employees and you would not be constantly training new folks. Studies have shown that the costs of constant training are higher than those of insurance in the long run.
So, one reason I support Bernie Sanders for president is that Medicare for All is the best health insurance for me and my neighbors. It has worked in other countries. It can work here.
Susan Worgaftik is a resident of Greenfield and a member of Pioneer Valley for Bernie 2020 and FCCPR.