Socialist Chic and the ‘Medicare for All’ Sham

What Abdul El-Sayed proposes is a single-payer system nothing like the program for the elderly. -Allysia Finley

He has called for free child care, “Medicare for all” and an 8% wealth tax on billionaires.

“I don’t think that our system should be in the business of creating billionaires,” he said during a March debate... 

The catchphrase “Medicare for all” is misleading. 

• What Mr. El-Sayed proposes isn’t universal Medicare but a single-payer system with no premiums, deductibles or cost-sharing.

Medicare has all of the above. 

• All seniors who don’t also qualify for Medicaid have to pay a monthly Medicare Part B premium, starting at $202.90 a month and tied to income. 
• Seniors who enroll in traditional Medicare fee-for-service also have a $1,736 deductible for inpatient hospital care, steep cost-sharing requirements and no limit on out-of-pocket spending. 
• They also have to purchase separate prescription-drug plans, whose monthly premiums range from zero to $239. 
• About 40% of seniors in traditional Medicare buy supplemental insurance polices to cover benefits like dental and vision care not provided by the government and for protection against catastrophic costs.
• Seniors also have the choice of enrolling in private federally subsidized Medicare Advantage insurance plans...Mr. El-Sayed wants to eliminate these plans...