TYT contributor Ryan Grim (Twitter.com/RyanGrim) breaks down the fine print Sen. Bernie Sanders' Medicare For All bill, including a response to critics who ask, "But how are you going to pay for it?"
Ryan writes about this, with colleague Zaid Milani, for The Intercept:
The bill does not include an explicit funding mechanism. However, on Wednesday afternoon, Sanders’s office released a document laying out several options for financing the plan. The document is more or less a menu of various revenue mechanisms for the federal government to choose from. As the bill is debated in committee, Sanders said, senators can debate the various funding ideas.
The list includes, for instance, both household and employer-based premiums. The document proposes a 7.5 percent income-based premium on employers and a 4 percent income-based premium on households. Together, it estimates these two proposals would raise $7.4 trillion over ten years.
The document also notes that Medicare for All would eliminate various tax breaks that currently subsidize our current health financing system. This would raise $4.2 trillion over a decade.
Then there’s a large list of non-health care related taxes: everything from making the estate tax more progressive to taxing large financial institutions to establishing a wealth tax on the top 0.1 percent.
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I had a good fap earlier today. I think I will relax for the rest of the day. peace
General Grievous ummm grievous… your hands hurt…. careful not to ignite your saber prematurely
Lorena.
Then he’ll go to the emergency room and say: “I don’t know what happened doc! I was just cleaning it and it went off!”
Ugh. Why raise taxes? If the government would stop wasting taxpayer dollars on war, you wouldn’t even have to raise taxes.
Illegals pay into SSI that they never see. Goes into a slush fund and gets distributed to Americans. They give fake SSI and when time for taxes they don’t file. STFU or educate yourself.
AIM NIOIS. If you are of part Spanish heritage, you undoubtably know, that the first Europeans to colonize California and displace the Natives were Spaniards coming up from Mexico. So by your own logic Mexicans can quite rightly demnd, that all other Europeans and Africans and Asians should leave California. I´m with the Natives on this one of course. So you should all go home and leave America to the Natives.
XHellXGeistX exactly … not a fan of raising taxes but i guess instead of paying premiums we would just get that deducted out of our taxes
JRLM I’m fairly certain that the increase in your taxes would be far less than the monthly premiums would be. You would save a lot of money.
Oh I don’t want higher taxes.
Are you worth 21 mil or making more then 400k a year?
No but what if I do?
Somehow I don’t think you will, but even if you did, wouldn’t you have enough money anyway to take care of yourself and family?
But but but… MORE MONEY!!!
Sigh.
BLAIR M Schirmer I agree with your entire statement, but man, what a loaded question to ask in a country where Donald Trump is president! Lol. Sigh.
The American Dream (along with religion) has become a tool used to trick people into thinking that they may one day be rich so why screw yourself in the future, no matter how little that screwing actually is (in reality NONE). Also they same trick of convincing people that issues are caused by people in lower classes. Also education does not involve the most important skill, critical thinking and school sports help divert kids from learning even more.
Positive news is there are groups of billionaires that support Bernie and/or want to be taxed higher and see the money go towards welfare.
JoelRiter thing also is that if you were worth 21 mil, you would still pay $0, only the wealth above that is taxed, so enjoy your nontaxed (for healthcare) 21 mil
JoelRiter you’re right. People are more likely to lose their homes than to make $10m
he should’ve answered sarcastically “by selling large amounts of ponies”.
That’s Vermin Supreme’s Platform…lol
Wealth tax is a good idea. Why burden the lower and middle/ working class with a tax on income or burden small businesses when income inequity is already so high? A 1% wealth tax over 21 million is a tiny fraction for the wealthy to pay. Personally I think it should be A LOT more, not just to help fund healthcare, but to start undoing the damage the billionare class have done to this planet and to society.
Ben B says:
“A 1% wealth tax over 21 million is a tiny fraction for the wealthy to pay. …”
==
It will hurt their feelings.
lol
Pat Pezzi says:
“Do you guys know that for decades after WWII the top bracket income tax
rate was 90%?…”
==
You are wrong.
It was “91%”.
Harry Hightower says:
“the tax rate was 90 % and the US was working fine with it that high …”
==
It wasn’t only fine, but
Actually the US had the biggest and the longest economic boom in the history called “postwar economic boom”.
US dollar had become the undisputed world currency.
Today, the US dollar had lost its charisma.
Ben B the war budget has to shrink
All you people or BOTS crying about”tax increase”… As a middle income family, I would GLADLY pay taxes if we had healthcare I didn’t have to worry about. I am staring at a pile of nickle&dime bills from my doctors for labs w/no names, procedures involved with labs, parts of a lab that was done 7 mos ago that the insurance company has decided not to pay for. So, keep whining about “tax increases.” Ask your congressman or senator who pays their healthcare?
chetzmom 4 In any event, you’re not paying more. A small tax increase, a much larger drop in health care premiums, which will end.
–The pharma industry bots are out here in force.
Why would anyone have any illusion that the current system is for Big Pharma and insurance company profits and don’t give a damn about the people? The only reason cost skyrockets is because of Big pharma and their profits.
chetzmom, applause, applause! hear, hear! Medicare for ALL!
Blair you are right! Man that was funny because it is true. Boy they see their tenous grasp on big profits slip away! pharma industry is bad for animals, the environment, and people! Did I leave anything out?
Everyone if you hAve time throw mmt in the youtube search bar it will make the earth shift give u back some hope its a lil work at first once you understand easy peasy
I want someone to ask these lovers of increasing the “War budget” how they are going to pay for it. I shall grow old whilst waiting for any media talking head to pose that question. Everyone could be covered if we simply moved money out of the war budget but that will NEVER happen. I’m glad Bernie is doing this I just wish he and others would discuss cutting that insanely bloated money losing military budget.
BLAIR M Schirmer they dont pay anything taxes dont fund spending 1. An even if they did your comparing second homes and snow tires to winter coats an diapers for children like i cant understand how you guys think??????????…?..?
888strummer lies utter lies i think the number was 2.4m of profit you know the thing all the corps pay big money to fidget with like are pres wallmart employees pay up to 30% earned over all income straight out the check more than mill/bill arses. 10% if we can nail them down an force them thats we’re disgust should lie its time for you to bleed with us except your responsibility as your team puts it. At the end of the day the top halfs playing monoply and the bottom 30% are gambling with death hunger and illness
bonchidude i think 70% is optimal an this is profit after expanses lol expanses too the fuckers have to be witch hunted to get 10% out of them its crazy then they have the gaul to cry about fed taxes its despicable
888strummer lies we all pay sales taxes property taxes for even a mop head in my state the rich should get flat taxes 70% after expenses give the exemptions down to 50% if they can proove there providing people with full time full benny work or just do a spending bill like the congress is supposed to in the first place and the whole building about to fist fight over a non issue the irony is rich and terrible ugh…..
Yeah taxes increase but GUESS WHAT, you end up saving more money by not paying for healthcare. You pay it through your taxes
And what of the people who are unemployed or underemployed, who pays for them?
Even underemployed pays taxes.
Thanks “”BlazingInferno”.:) It makes health care cheaper and more secure? Then it’s no concern of mine if unfortunates also benefit?:D
If you are going to ask why that guy also benefit you better ask who benefits to the tune of billions today. Its big pharma and insurance companies. Another question is should healthcare be based on Need or ability to pay?
BlazingInferno taxes dont have to go up.. just decrease the waste in the war budget. stop fucking with other countries and you wont need a massive war budget
How do we not have a Legitimate Federal Luxury Tax!?!? Wealth tax seems fair, but the real tax should be on extravagant items like Jets, Yachts, Mansions, Art, Wine, Helicopters, Hyper cars, Cigars.
That’s so idiotic. You know what’s bad policy? Thinking with your heart instead of your brain. Back in the 90s they tried that for yachts, and people just stopped buying them, so they lost a few million in taxes and 1000s of jobs
Just tell Trump supporters Mexico is going to pay for it.
Bam‼︎
Good one :D.
Clint Holmes LMAO! I love it!
This *NEEDS* to happen.
We are not livestock who should be let-go when we are too old, sick or lame to labor-for or be profitable-to someone else.
The U.K. has had a version of Single Payer, since 1948!
troy this isn’t single payer, not as good but better than nothing
Muh raise muh taxes, rather have shitty healthcare. Muh.
Lmfao. Reach out to your accounting firm and see if you’re over $21Ms and anything over that will get taxes 1% . Lol
It’s 1% on wealth above $21 million dollars. So, if your total assets are $100 above $21,000,000, then you owe $1 under this proposed wealth tax. If your total wealth is less than $21,000,000, you will not be impacted by this tax. Ryan was making a joke as Victor was pointing out above. Few of us have to worry about that.
210k will cover about 21 families of four, the hardest hit would be the Bill Gates and other industry leaders, even then, their money is not enough to cover the tens of millions who have no insurance or useless Obamacare plans. Bernie will have to raise the medicare tax on every working adult in America to cover Medicare for all. I wish there was a feasible plan to cover health care but it is expensive.
But for most people, I would wager that increasing taxes a bit across the board would still be cheaper for most people than buying any halfway decent health insurance over time.
Myballsitchsomethingfierce did you not hear the tax bracket part? You got stuck on the 21 million. Also, employers have a tax as well although they will save money in not having to pay premiums. These are all ideas that combined would work.
Bernie is an idiot, why would you target employers during a economy like this, just because the stock market is setting records doesn’t mean all employers are doing well. The republicans hold the majority in both houses and senate they want to decrease taxes not raise taxes especially on companies.
Tax the rich!!!
Eat The Rich
I’d eat a rich sexy sugar mama 😛
How do you Republicans and Warhawk Democrats pay for your stupid wars and tax cuts for the rich?
They make the poor and the middle class pay for it.
At the end, you’ll be paying less, much less
Currently, US citizens per person pay twice the amount of average of other countries, either in form of tax or the premiums.
http://www-tc.pbs.org/prod-media/newshour/photos/2012/10/02/US_spends_much_more_on_health_than_what_might_be_expected_1_slideshow.jpg
Public spending is already one of the highest but the spending by the privates are more than 4 times compare to to citizens of other countries.
How you pay for it is relatively simple. Remove the insurance companies from the loop and allow the govt to negotiate drug prices. This is how other countries do it. The solutions are easy. Implementing it in the corrupted US political system, where insurance and pharma lobbyists own your lawmakers, is the hard bit. And taxing more would also help. Adding say $1500/yr in family taxes but saving them $3500/yr in insurance makes sense. Get more, for less.
Reduce military spending, it’s that simple.
It’s not. The weapons manufacturers have tied so much of the US economy to weapons (they spread their factories so thin over the entire US, instead of doing it the way other businesses would have and centralizing it as much as possible in a tax friendly area) that we would have to cautiously decouple the military industrial complex from our economy. Def wouldn’t run around saying it’s simple. That gives fodder to medicare detractors.
Instead, they should “decouple” our US health care, right? They could save $35B if they cancelled the Boeing contract they just awarded, and another if they don’t subsidize Boeing $30m to HELP them win that contract (say what?!) The list of wasted money is staggering. Look into that! Also, it’s probable that we’ll save a bunch by going to single payer, like other countries have demonstrated over and over. Excuses. All we hear are excuses–while America sickens and dies. Right!
“how will you pay for it?” – the same way every other civilized country on earth pays for it!