"Medicare for All" highlights

For those of you about to watch the Democratic debate, Bernie's newly released "Medicare for All" plan is likely to feature prominently.  Here's the quick and dirty of this extremely clean plan.  It looks so workable.

Highlights: 
- 6 TRILLION dollar savings over 10 years compared to the current system

- A family of 4 earning $50,000 saves about $5800 a year from the current model.

- Businesses would save about $9000 a year per employee from the current model.

- No income tax increases on households earning under $250,000/year


There are numbers for everything. At a cursory glance, it looks MORE than sound, and is fully funded in decreasing order by:

- $630 billion per year: a 6.2% income-based health care premium paid by employers per employee. However this replaces their internal costs and saves businesses money.

- $320 billion per year: eliminating tax breaks for subsidized healthcare systems  that benefit pharmaceutical companies and health care corporations and hurt patients

- $210 billion per year: 2.2% income-based tax on all households. However, this replaces an average household healthcare cost of about $6000/year. A family of 4 earning $50,000 would pay $466 for all healthcare needs including dental, vision, prescriptions, and no provider restrictions.

- $110 billion per year: raising income taxes on the top earners (ONLY those that earn $250,000 year or more, and capping at 52%)

- $92 billion per year taxing capital gains and dividends at the same rate as earned income

- $21 billion per year closing estate tax and inheritance loopholes that benefit the super-rich

There's no damn reason we don't have this in play NOW.