So I pull up Fox News to find an opinion article titled, “It’s Time for Medicare for All.” And I notice the byline of the purported author: “Sen. Bernie Sanders.” To be sure, the article that follows does sound quite a lot like the real Bernie Sanders, the Socialist Democrat from Vermont. But it’s hard to imagine the real Bernie Sanders willingly appearing at Fox News. Though it is hard to tell, as the drivel that follows is so on-brand.
Just take in the first sentence:
The United States has the most dysfunctional, inefficient, bureaucratic and expensive health care system in the world.
Yes, this is a true statement, but the idea that Medicare-for-all is the solution is one of the great non-sequiturs of our age, which is why one imagines Fox News intends this piece as a bit of meta satire. It is federal regulation that has driven the bureaucratization and cost explosion of health care in both the public and private sector.
The article gets better:
Would a Medicare-for-all health care system be expensive? Yes.
That may be the only probative statement in the article. It quickly resumes fantasy-land:
But, while providing comprehensive health care for all, it would be significantly LESS costly than our current dysfunctional system because it would eliminate an enormous amount of the bureaucracy, profiteering, administrative costs and misplaced priorities inherent in our current for-profit system.
Yes, do recall the real Bernie Sanders was born in Brooklyn, and probably tried to sell the Brooklyn Bridge a few times to unsuspecting passers-by.
Chaser—Mark Perry with a helpful chart, where the definite kink in the line corresponds to when Medicare and Medicaid began their steady process of separating payment decisions from the patient.
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