Democrats’ Medicare for All = Medicare for No One

What Democrats’ “Medicare for All” Means:

• Ends Medicare as seniors know it. It eliminates both traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage, the coverage 55 percent of eligible beneficiaries, about 35 million seniors, have chosen. Private supplemental coverage becomes illegal wherever it duplicates the government plan.¹ ²

• Takes the trust fund seniors paid into. Seniors, and the Medicare Trust Fund they paid into their entire working lives, are thrown into one giant government-run system open to every U.S. resident, shared with 281 million others, including millions who never paid in at all.¹

• Bans employer and military health plans. Employer-provided coverage and health programs for service members, military retirees and their families, would be ended and folded into the same bureaucratic system.¹

• More than $40 trillion in new federal spending. The net federal cost is $47.4 trillion from 2027 to 2036, an average of $4.7 trillion a year. That’s more than all federal individual and corporate income taxes combined brought in during FY2025 ($3.1 trillion).³ ⁵ Paying for it means higher taxes on most Americans: covering the cost through wages alone would take a new 32 percent payroll tax on top of today’s 15.3 percent.⁶

• Treatment delayed and denied. The Congressional Budget Office projects that under single payer, demand for care would outpace supply, leading to more congestion and unmet need.⁴ In Canada, the median wait from referral to specialist treatment is 28.6 weeks. England’s waiting list stands at about 7.1 million cases.³ Seniors use the most care, so they’re hit hardest when the lines form.

Medicare for All = Medicare for No One.