alt Hacker News>> Medicare pays 50% less than private insurance. So doing this would require either layoffs, cutting salaries for doctors/nurses/etc, or both. This may well be the right decision for society as a whole--that's a big part of the debate here--but there's no free lunch.
You arent considering
1. Hospitals eating the cost of the uninsured, which this would solve
2. Hospital spending tons on administrative duties fighting with insurers on coverage, which this would reduce
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Those are two real effects, but together they wouldn't compensate for the rate cuts.
About 8% of the population is uninsured. The uninsured population skews younger, with less healthcare utilization (Medicare already covers everyone 65 and older).
Another comment in this thread estimated billing overhead at 8.5%. Medicare for All would eliminate some, but not all of this, since Medicare is still a claims-based system. You would remove a lot of overhead around prior auths, which I agree is a good thing, but could be achieved with more focused legislation.
How would this change solve: "Hospitals eating the cost of the uninsured..."?
Wouldn't it just transfer the cost from the hospitals to the universal coverage agency? This would make the financial picture even worse for the proposed system.