On Medicare-for-All

Ezra Klein has been writing about it lately, with no discussion of the fact that seniors are so happy with their existing Medicare because it's expensive and unsustainable. We have a difficult enough time paying for Medicare's coverage of seniors, but Ezra would like to raise taxes enough to spread this great-but-expensive coverage to the entire population?

It's madness.

A fiscally-sustainable Medicare-for-All would have to be pared down like Canada's single-payer. If this is what we offered seniors, they wouldn't be as happy with their coverage.

So citing everyone's satisfaction with Medicare as a reason to move to it is alarmingly naivecoming from a policy wonk like Ezra. We just can't afford to pay for it. And doctors, hospitals, and medical suppliers can't afford to run solely on Medicare's below-market rates--not while providing the same level of care and innovation, anyway.