Here's
the thumbnail version of what she proposes: She would hike taxes on
corporations and the rich. She would repurpose the money employers and
states now spend on their own health insurance programs. She would pull
money from elsewhere in the federal budget and, critically, she would
control spending throughout the health care industry -- not just for
drug makers, but for doctors and hospitals too.
The
plan is complex and so it will be a while before analysts figure out
exactly what it entails and where all the hidden tradeoffs are. The
numbers add up, at least on paper, and she's got some highly respected
experts, including former Obama administration officials Don Berwick and
Betsey Stevenson, vouching for the feasibility of different plan
components.
Still, plenty
of experts are already wondering about the provision to keep employers
paying for health care -- and whether it can work as Warren intends.
Others are questioning her campaign's assumptions of massive new savings
from administrative simplification and whether she's accounted
appropriately for other variables, like the fact that people who get
better health insurance tend to consume a lot more health care.
And
then there are the daunting political challenges that any Medicare for
All plan, including the original bill from Bernie Sanders, would face.
Corporations will fight the new taxes and the health care industry will
oppose the new cost controls, arguing, rightly or wrongly, that they
will undermine quality and timeliness of treatment, even as the plan
eliminates financial barriers to care. That could resonate with a public
that, however unhappy about the status quo, also lacks faith in
government.
Could
Warren's plan work in the real world? Should we judge it as a
schematic, or a statement of priorities and values? Is it more or less
honest than the typical campaign document -- and how does it compare to
what Republicans have put forward? These are all good questions, about
which honest people can disagree.
But
at the very least, we can stop asking how Warren would pay for a
single-payer health care plan and start asking whether her approach to
policy makes sense for the country.
Here's a tweetstorm with some more thoughts:
And then the full story at HuffPost, from Friday, with my colleague Kevin Robillard:
Jonathan Cohn
