What You Need To Know About Elizabeth Warren's Plan To Pay For 'Medicare For All'

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren proposed Friday to pay for a "Medicare for All" health care system without raising taxes on most people.

Warren said she could raise more than $20 trillion over a decade for the system through charges levied on large employers, a wealth surtax on billionaires and a new tax on financial transactions like stock and bond trades.

Warren has been under pressure to explain how she'd pay for the proposal under which private insurance would be eliminated and all Americans would get health care through a government system focused on whether patients need the care rather than whether they can afford it.

What You Need to Know About The Spending Proposal

The tax proposal would:

  • Have employers pay the government (instead of insurers) most of what they currently pay for health insurance - raising nearly $9 trillion over a decade.
  • Raise $800 billion over a decade through a tax of one-tenth of 1% on the sale of bonds, stocks or derivatives.
  • Raise $2.9 trillion through changes in corporate tax collection laws.
  • Raise $1 trillion through a 6% tax on individual net worth above $1 billion.
  • Raise $100 billion through a fee on the largest banks.
  • Raise $2 trillion by taxing non-retirement account capital gains annually on the the top 1% of households.
  • Boost tax collections by $2.3 trillion through stronger enforcement.

The rest Warren said would come through stronger enforcement of the existing tax code, higher collections of existing taxes due to higher take-home incomes and other efficiencies.

"Under my Medicare for All plan, costs will go up for the very wealthy and big corporations, and costs will go down for middle-class families," Warren said in her policy paper on the proposal. "I will not sign a bill that violates these commitments."

Related Links:

Twitter Will No Longer Accept Political Advertising

Winners, Losers From The Detroit Democratic Debate

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Comments
Loading...
Posted In: Health CarePoliticsGeneralElizabeth WarrenHealth InsuranceMedicare for All
Benzinga simplifies the market for smarter investing

Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.

Join Now: Free!