One of Uncle Bernie’s less endearing qualities is his propensity for framing complex policy issues as a battle between the oppressed little people and the evil, greedy Big (Fill in the blank). Medicare-for-All is a classic example of that.
Health care is, I believe, about 17 percent of GDP, and the vast majority of providers aren’t big anything. They are looking at significant cuts in their compensation in a Medicare-for-All scheme. Since our ridiculously high health care costs are attributable to unit prices, not overuse, there is a strong argument in favor of cutting their compensation through the use of consumer cartels, but is it reasonable to expect them to simply acquiesce to help out the rest of us? Should they be demonized for protecting their own self-interest in the same manner that you and I would under similar circumstances? Even worse, should they be ignored on the basis that they don’t really exist, and the health care cost problem is caused completely by Big Pharma and Big Insurance?
Bernie needs to be straight with the American people. Medicare-for-All isn’t just a huge gamble for people with employer-based insurance; it will involve painful wage cuts and lost jobs for millions of average working people who are going to fight tooth and nail against the plan. You can’t have a reasonable discussion about the political feasibility of Medicare-for-All until you openly accept that fact.