[Occupymendocino] Medicare for All

[Richard Karch]

Peoples Policy ProjectSeptember 12, 2019

Medicare for All Would Cut Poverty
by Over 20 PercentBy Matt Bruenig
The Census released its annual income, poverty, and health insurance
statistics earlier this week. The summary report shows that 8 million of
the nation’s 42.5 million poor people would not be poor if they did not
have to pay medical out-of-pocket (MOOP) expenses like deductibles,
copays,
coinsurance, and self-payments. Medicare for All (M4A) virtually
eliminates
these kinds of payments, meaning that these 8 million people (18.8 percent
of all poor people) would find themselves lifted over the poverty
threshold
if M4A were enacted.
This headcount poverty measure actually understates how significant MOOP
expenses are to poverty in this country. According to this same data, in
2018, the total poverty gap stood at $175.8 billion. This figure is
derived
by calculating how far each poor family’s income is below the poverty
line and then adding those calculations together to get an aggregate
amount. MOOP expenses make up $38.2 billion of that total gap, meaning
thatMedicare for All would cut poverty by about 22 percent.
Coincidentally, MOOP expenses also chew up about 22 percent of the income
of poor people. That’s right: more than 1 in 5 dollars received by the
nation’s poor goes towards out-of-pocket medical expenses. For families
with incomes above 400 percent of the poverty line, the same figure is
only4.6 percent.
What this means is that, by eliminating medical out-of-pocket expenses,
Medicare for All would reduce headcount poverty by 19 percent, reduce the
overall poverty gap by 22 percent, and increase poor people’s incomes by
29 percent. Indeed, M4A’s elimination of MOOP expenses would contribute
more to the incomes of the poor than the Earned Income Tax Credit
currently
does. This makes M4A one of the most potent anti-poverty programs proposed
thus far in the current presidential race.
https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/09/12/medicare-for-all-would-cut-poverty-by-over-20-percent/ <https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/09/12/medicare-for-all-would-cut-poverty-by-over-20-percent/>
[1]
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Comment by Don McCanne
Besides the obvious advantage of single payer Medicare for All in making
health care affordable for everyone, Matt Bruenig shows us that it would
also "reduce headcount poverty by 19 percent, reduce the overall poverty
gap by 22 percent, and increase poor people’s incomes by 29 percent." It
"would contribute more to the incomes of the poor than the Earned Income
Tax Credit currently does," making it "one of the most potent anti-poverty
programs proposed thus far in the current presidential race."
Who could be opposed to that? (Dont answer.)


Links:
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[1]
https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/09/12/medicare-for-all-would-cut-poverty-by-over-20-percent/ <https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/09/12/medicare-for-all-would-cut-poverty-by-over-20-percent/>

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