Sen. John Barrasso, chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, on Thursday, asked the Congressional Budget Office to determine the cost of the single payer health insurance bill introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
The score would make projections about how many people would have health insurance under the Sanders bill, called the Medicare for All Act, and would project how much the government would spend on the system, including through increases in the debt and taxes. Barrasso is also requesting that the report make projections about the impact the bill would have on employment.
“It is being sold as a new health system paid for completely by the government, with no restrictions and at no cost to the patient,” the Wyoming Republican wrote in a letter to CBO director Keith Hall. “Of course, such a system would be anything but free to the American taxpayer … as the country engages in a serious debate about how best to reform our healthcare system, it is imperative that the public understand the cost of Senator Sanders’ Medicare for All proposal.”
Sanders has not said how the bill would be financed, though he made a paper public that raised several possibilities, including through taxes on households or employers. He said Wednesday that the plan was for he and other Democratic senators to travel the country to take input from the public and also from hospitals about financing.
An analysis of a similar plan Sanders introduced when he was running for the Democratic nomination for president, from the left-leaning Urban Institute, projected that such a system would increase federal spending by $32 trillion over a decade. With more costs shifting to the federal government, the analysis projected that the private sector would spend $22 trillion less than it otherwise would have and states would spend $4 trillion less.
