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That's $5.2 trillion that America can save by creating a Medicare system by which every American has medical coverage. This new system that will be far less wasteful and far more effective in the way it operates. It has the potential to eventually put America on a par with the best systems in the world.
How can such monumental savings be captured? Check out the press release area in the 200-page analysisby Peri, the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It determined that, "based on 2017 U.S. healthcare expenditure figures, the cumulative savings for the first decade operating under Medicare for All would be $5.1 trillion, equal to 2.1 percent of cumulative GDP; without accounting for broader macroeconomic benefits such as increased productivity, greater income equality, and net job creation through lower operating costs for small- and medium-sized businesses."
Up to now America has a third-rate healthcare system in place for many years and it keeps getting worse; it is a paperwork nightmare, it does not cover 9%, or nearly 30 million, American and about 26% are underinsured. It is obsolete and outdated, and it must be replaced with some form of universal healthcare in which every single American is covered.
We're not talking about the quality of the healthcare that is provided by doctors and hospitals, though there are some problems to be found there. We're talking about the high costs and inefficiencies of a system that is not one overall system at all but has five separate systems within it; private medical insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, and the VA, Veterans Administration system.
What a convoluted system this is. These five healthcare entities operate on their own with little to no connection between them. All of them are greatly burdened with massive paperwork and high costs of operation. Private insurance premiums never stop increasing. Republicans tried hard to destroy Obamacare and failed, at least so far.
Here are some statistics from NerdWallet.com, the personal finance and credit card comparison website which illustrate how very badly these systems are working:
*56 million Americans under age 65 will have trouble paying medical bills.
*Over 35 million American adults (ages 19-64) will be contacted by collections agencies for unpaid medical bills; 17 million of the same age group will receive a lower credit rating on account of their medical bills.
*Over 15 million adults in the same age group will use us all their savings to pay medical bills; over 11 million in the same age group will take on credit card debt to pay off their hospital bills.
*Nearly 10 million adults will be unable to pay for basic necessities like rent, food, and heat due to medical bills.
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